If you’ve already used the feature Payments, from WhatsApp, knows that it currently only works between individuals. In addition, the function only accepts prepaid, debit or multiple cards (with the debit function activated) issued by some of the partner banks or institutions — you can check the complete list on this page. But that is regarding to change.
Today (March 2), the Central Bank authorized WhatsApp to make available the feature that allows you to make payments with credit cards. In this way, it will be possible to make payments to companies (that is, to buy products and services within the messenger itself.
As reported by G1the feature still cannot go live now because the start of the feature must be communicated to all service partners at least 30 days in advance, which is happening today — according to the BC, this time is necessary to respect the “regulatory principles related to competition and non-discrimination aspects”.
WhatsApp had been struggling to implement this payments feature for almost two years, since when money transfer between friends/family was implemented. In April last year, we said that WhatsApp was still having problems putting the plan into action on account of the operators (who were reticent regarding fees and conditions) and the BC itself (which was tightening the requirements).
With the release of the feature, the boss of WhatsApp celebrated on Twitter:
The head of WhatsApp for Latin America celebrated on LinkedIn:
It remains to be seen whether the resource will be used by the population, since rejection in Brazil was around 60% at the end of 2021 — and this taking into account that, shortly before, another survey reported that only 7% of users had enabled the function.
Weighing in favor of WhatsApp, a credit card payment feature for companies, in which you can simply choose a product/service from a store catalog, for example, and pay for it right there, it is something extremely simple — even if Pix has arrived to facilitate any type of payment.
