Last week I had the privilege of attending the ceremonial tap of Jollibee’s HappyPlus Card.

Wait. “Ceremonial tap”? What are we talking about here?

Well, Jollibee’s HappyPlus Card is a prepaid rewards card. But this isn’t your usual card with the magnetic strip for a cashier to swipe. No, my dear reader, the HappyPlus Card uses near field communications (NFC).

What is NFC? Well, hopefully you’re familiar with RFID. And if not, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is what’s usually used in the ePass toll payment system, and in the proximity cards used for office security locks. NFC is like that. But the difference is that while RFID can be recognized from several meters away, NFC can only be recognized from mere centimeters. There’s more to it, but I’ll leave that for another post.

L-R: Ma. Cristina Go (Sr. Executive Vice President, BPI), Aurelio Luis Montinola III (President, BPI), Tony Tan Caktiong (Chairman & CEO, Jollibee), Ernesto Tanmationg (President & COO, Jollibee). Of course, you know who that bee is in the middle.

Suffice to say that Jollibee decided to use NFC for their new cashless payment system. The whole thing is like BPI’s Prepaid and Gift cards. You load up the card and then use it in any Jollibee affiliated store.

Oh, right! BPI is actually providing the payment infrastructure for HappyPlus. So you may be asking now: If the HappyPlus Card acts like a debit card, why not just use BPI’s usual Express debit cards?

Simple: payment is much faster. With the usual mag-stripe debit card, you give your card to the cashier, cashier swipes the card on the payment terminal, then wait for the connection to happen. Then wait for the receipt to be printed. Then you sign the receipt. Then you get back your card and a copy of the receipt. Way too long for a fastfood counter that has a long waiting line.

NFC changes all that. You tap your card on the terminal to pay and you’re done! Just see how easy it is in this video:

You also get rewards points every time you use your HappyPlus Card in the participating stores. Every 50 peso purchase gets you 1 point. 1 point is equal to 1 peso. Keep on using your card and soon enough you’ll have enough points that you could get your purchase for free! Heck, you can even pay with the load AND the points at the same time. Ain’t that great?

But wait! There’s more! Every time you load your Jollibee HappyPlus Card, you get raffle tickets. Those tickets are entered into the monthly Happy Plus Raffle where you can win upto 100,000 pesos every month! Note that the Happy Plus Card has actually been around for around five months already so there have been a number of lucky winners in the monthly raffle. See here for details on how to earn those tickets!

So now you know why Jollibee and BPI had the ceremonial tap. While it has been around for some time already, last week simply formalized the introduction of the Jollibee HappyPlus Card.

So how do you get one? Just go to the nearest store and buy the 100-peso HappyPlus Membership Kit from the cashier. Fill out the registration form. Give that back to the cashier. From there you can start loading and using your card. You can also register online! Once your card is loaded, you can use it in Jollibee, Greenwich, Chowking and Red Ribbon. Yes, you can buy the kit from those other stores too! Wait, what about Mang Inasal? Well, you’ll be able to use the HappyPlus Card there soon enough.

There were a few questions on whether the card can be used when ordering for a delivery. Not at the moment, folks. Though the guys from Jollibee said it will happen soon enough with the use of a mobile device. But that is another story for another time.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a hankering for a Jollibee Peach Mango Pie.

Charo

Charo is a well-known consultant and trainer in Java and Android technologies. She is also a founder of Mobile Monday Manila, and the Philippine Android Community. Her favorite noodles: Pad thai.

email: charo@technoodling.netwebsite: http://www.thegeekettespeaketh.com