Giropay
What is GiroPay?
GiroPay is a renowned payment method, developed by parts of the German banking system that allows online payments to be made using online banking through the costumer’s own bank. GiroPay is based on the German Internet banking system and was specially developed for online payments. GiroPay has partnered with more than 1,500 German banks which authorize the transactions and allow merchants to confirm payments in real-time.
Payments are done using the online banking environment of the customer's own bank that is already already familiar and all personal info (e.g account number, PIN) are filled only in the interaction with the customer’s bank increasing the security and acceptance among German users. Furthermore no extra registration or additional software are necessary to use GiroPay.
The funds are instantly debited from the customer's account and the payments made using Giropay cannot be reversed by the customer. Transaction history and payment details can be viewed by consumers in their own banking reports.
How does GiroPay work?
The first step the customer needs to do is to select the desired bank or Sparkasse and login with his online banking access data (e.g. account number and PIN/password). The next and final step is to review the payment details and confirm the transfer using a TAN (Transaction authentication number) generated with a token device or received by SMS. For transactions smaller than 30 EUR the TAN number might not be required.