Sniip CEO Damien Vasta was delighted to welcome the much-loved comedian and wine expert, Merrick Watts, to Fish Lane where the Sniip headquarters are based today. Known for his wit and charm, Merrick was in town ahead of his highly anticipated Brisbane Festival show, “An Idiot’s Guide to Wine – Volume Two.”
During his visit, Merrick met Sniip CEO Damien Vasta, where the two exchanged laughs and ideas. While the topic of conversation included the finer points of wine pairings—no doubt in preparation for his upcoming shows—Damien couldn’t resist the opportunity to share a few of his own (infamous) dad jokes.
“We’re always thrilled to host creative talents like Merrick and it just goes to show how much Brisbane is on-the-map as a capacity city now,” said Damien Vasta. “Merrick’s ability to blend humour with expertise is something we admire at Sniip, as we strive to make bill payments as seamless and swift as possible for our users.”
Merrick’s show, “An Idiot’s Guide to Wine – Volume Two,” has already received critical acclaim, and we look forward to seeing him continue to entertain audiences with his unique blend of comedy and wine knowledge. At Sniip, we’re proud to support the arts and local talent, and we wish Merrick continued success on his tour.
For more information about Merrick Watts and his upcoming shows, visit the Brisbane Festival website.
To learn more about how Sniip is revolutionising the way Australians pay their bills, explore our platform atwww.sniip.com.
THE winners of the 2024 ‘Sniip Easter Colouring-in Competition’ are officially in!
Now in its second year, record entries poured in, resulting in the competition deadline being extended to allow for little artists to have extra time to complete their masterpieces.
The competition was open to children aged up to 12 years, seeing entrants fill in the custom artwork, complete with bunny, birds, butterflies (and Sniip billers). It is fair to say the contest attracted a vast array of colour schemes and wonderfully creative interpretations.
Sophie, age 9 from New South Wales, winner of Sniip Easter Competition 2024
Darren Lockyer, endorser of Sniip and judge of Sniip Easter Competition
Normally used to judging football talent, NRL football legend Darren Lockyer took on the prestigious role of competition judge for his second year.
He was ably joined by wife Loren and their four children: Sunny, Flynn, Hugo and Cleo.
As the family poured over the mass amount of entrants, Lockyer said he was wowed by the record number of participants and the diligent efforts by all who took part. “It really shows how the awareness for Sniip and this great Easter competition is growing,” Lockyer said.
Each entrant put their own spin on the design, but there was one entrant who really caught the eye of the judging panel.
The entire Lockyer family were all quite vocal in their assistance to Lockyer as they deliberated over his final decision.
Sophie, age 9 from NSW took the grand prize, scoring first place with her colourful creation.
“Sophie’s added a rainbow and showed some real initiative!” Lockyer said.
“It’s very colourful and has a lot of depth to the design.
“It just makes you feel happy!”
Receiving the winning call on an overcast afternoon after school pick-up, Sophie was elated to hear the news she had come in first place.
“I’m really happy, and really excited!” she exclaimed down the line with her support squad (Dad) Drake-Brockman within earshot.
“I was trying to add lots of colours and trying to make it a bit special,” Sophie said.
Nine-year-old Sophie recalled the Saturday afternoon at home when she got out her colouring pencils and textas and got to work on her entry.
Adding a big bright rainbow, the sun, a pond and even Easter eggs in the clouds, along with an ‘on-trend’ bow to the bunny, her artistic creation flawed the illustrious judging panel.
There’s no surprises that the talented artist aspires to be an author or illustrator and we look forward to seeing the talented works in the future.
A close second prize was awarded to Harris, age 10 from Queensland.
“It’s very neat and I loved the Easter bunny in Harris’s design. It’s a zebra bunny! Wow!,” Locker commented.
“It’s very colourful and out of all of them, it’s probably the first one that captures your eye the most.”
Taking out third place is Elisha, age 8 from Victoria.
“It’s very neat and the Sniip logo really stands out. The shading on the bird is very clever too,” Lockyer said.
Lockyer said it was a tough selection to pick just three winners and runners-up.
“The efforts from all participants were very encouraging and a lot of people have taken a lot of time, and showed a lot of pride. Thank you so much for making my job a tough one!”
Three additional runner-up prizes were awarded to Bridgette, age 9 from Queensland, Arthur, age 5 from Queensland and Thaddeus, age 6 from Victoria.
Congratulations to everyone who participated for making such a fantastic effort, We can’t wait to do it all again next year!
We are delighted to announce a new addition to our board at Sniip. Virginia brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to our team.
Virginia’s distinguished career in corporate law, coupled with her exceptional leadership qualities, makes her a perfect fit for our board. Her insights have already proven invaluable, and we are eager to benefit from her strategic advice as we continue to advance Sniip’s mission.
Can you tell us about your background and experience in legal matters, including your time as a partner at HWL Ebsworth Lawyers, Russells, and Mills Oakley?
Certainly! I have had the privilege of working in the legal industry for many years, and my experience as a partner at these prestigious firms has been instrumental in shaping my career. During my tenure at HWL Ebsworth Lawyers, I honed my skills in legal compliance, IPO listing requirements and M&A. Critical thinking and legal analysis were fundamental to my role.
Additionally, I developed a strong sense of commercial awareness, which was crucial in navigating regulatory compliance and cross-border transactions. My experience also includes expertise in matters related to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and cyber & data governance.
How do you envision contributing to Sniip’s mission and growth in the coming years?
As a Non-Executive Director, I see my role at Sniip as instrumental in providing strategic guidance and ensuring that the company operates within legal and regulatory frameworks. Drawing from my experience, I aim to contribute by fostering a culture of good governance, while identifying opportunities for growth. My expertise in mergers and acquisitions, corporate reconstructions, and capital market transactions will also be valuable as we explore avenues for expansion and innovation.
What motivated you to join Sniip’s board as a Non-Executive Director?
My decision to join Sniip’s board as a Non-Executive Director is driven by a desire to lend my experience to a dynamic and forward-thinking organisation. While my background is rooted in law, I see this as an opportunity to broaden my experience while applying my skills to strategic decision-making . Sniip’s mission and growth prospects align perfectly with my interests and expertise, which makes this next phase a very exciting journey.
What motivated you to join Sniip’s board as a Non-Executive Director?
My decision to join Sniip’s board as a Non-Executive Director is driven by a desire to lend my experience to a dynamic and forward-thinking organisation. While my background is rooted in law, I see this as an opportunity to broaden my experience while applying my skills to strategic decision-making . Sniip’s mission and growth prospects align perfectly with my interests and expertise, which makes this next phase a very exciting journey.
In your view, what unique insights or expertise do you bring to Sniip that will benefit our business?
My extensive legal background equips me with a unique perspective on risk assessment, compliance, and governance – critical components for any successful organisation. I specialise in commercial law, and regulatory compliance, which I believe will be an asset to Sniip. Additionally, my track record in cross-border transactions and expertise in areas such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and cyber and data governance, provides skills that assist with the evolving challenges faced by all tech businesses today, especially payments businesses.
What excites you the most about being part of Sniip’s board, and what do you hope to achieve during your tenure as a Non-Executive Director?
What excites me most about joining Sniip’s board is the opportunity to collaborate with a dynamic team and contribute to the company’s vision. I hope to bring a fresh perspective to the board, ensuring that Sniip continues to thrive in a challenging corporate market for tech companies. My goal is to see Sniip achieve its mission and establish itself as a leader in the bill-payments space. I’m excited to have the opportunity to play a part in that journey.
Wondering how to earn points paying tax? Sniip is emphasised by the Herald Sun for maximising credit card rewards on government payments. The article highlights Sniip’s cost-effectiveness while earning full credit card points on government transactions.
The article emphasises that Sniip offers a platform for individuals and businesses alike to pay BPAY payments using their preferred credit cards. By utilising the Sniip platform, you can earn valuable credit card rewards while making government transactions such as ATO payments, superannuation, and HECS/HELP repayments.
Unlike traditional methods of tax payment that often come with capped or no credit card points, Sniip has emerged as a groundbreaking solution, providing their users with the opportunity to maximise credit card rewards.
"What do I do if my credit card doesn’t earn points?
There are a couple of bill payment services such as Sniip which allow you to use any credit card to pay bills."
Key advantages of Sniip include:
Full Credit Card Points: Individuals can earn full credit card reward points on every government payment, ensuring that they make the most of their spending.
No Hidden Fees: Sniip stands out by offering transparent pricing, without any hidden fees or extra charges, making it an economically sound choice for individuals and businesses.
Payments for anyone: Sniip caters to both business and individuals, so everyone can earn credit card rewards on all transactions.
As a pioneer in the industry, Sniip continues to revolutionise how people approach financial transactions, offering unmatched convenience and value.
another another key point basically as a matter of fact because as a result before as an illustration besides as can be seen but as has been noted certainly as I have noted chiefly as I have said
We’ve got some exciting news to share: Sniip has been nominated as a finalist for the third year running in the Australian Fintech Awards! Yes, that’s right, three years in a row. If we don’t win this time, we’re starting to feel like the Steve Bradbury of the FinTech world.
Jokes aside, we’re thrilled and humbled to have been named a finalist in two categories at the 2023 Finnies Awards: Excellence in Payments (including Remittance/FX) and Best Workplace Diversity. These awards are like the Logies of the FinTech world, and we’re excited to be part of the action.
As a payment platform, we’re committed to providing a seamless experience for our users, and being recognized for our work in this area is a testament to the dedication of our team. But we’re not just about payments – we’re also committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace where everyone feels valued and respected.
Our CEO, Damien Vasta, is a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusivity in the workplace, and he strives to provide job opportunities and career advancement to individuals from diverse backgrounds. As a result, our team comprises a diverse set of skills and backgrounds, which has been instrumental in our success.
We want to take this opportunity to thank our shareholders, staff, and supporters for their ongoing support and commitment to Sniip. We couldn’t have achieved this recognition without you, and we’re excited to continue working together to build a better bill payment experience for Australia.
The winners of the 2023 Finnies Awards will be announced on 31 May, 2023. Stay tuned for updates, and thank you again for your support.
Unlocking a first in the loyalty space. Sniip joins forces with Virgin Australia Business Flyer offering the ability to earn Velocity Frequent Flyer Points when paying business bills.
Sniip, built on successful consumer bill payments, launches into the business bill payment sector through this marquee partnership.
Over 50,000 Virgin Australia Business Flyer customers can now benefit from additional Points-earning opportunities when using Sniip, including earning up to 7,500 bonus Velocity Points.
How to Earn Velocity Points
Sniip, Australia’s popular mobile bill payments platform, today announces a new partnership with Virgin Australia Business Flyer. The partnerships provides customers the opportunity to earn Velocity Frequent Flyer Points when paying business bills with Sniip.
New Sniip users will benefit from this compelling offer when making purchases with leading airline Virgin Australia, gaining 7,500 bonus Velocity Points when they spend a minimum of $2,500 on bills in 30 days. Virgin Australia Business Flyer members will also earn 1 Point for every $10 paid on business bills using Sniip. This is in addition to Points they would normally earn from their chosen credit card.
Damien Vasta, CEO of Sniip said the partnership heralds an exciting start to Sniip’s launch into the business payments space.
“Being able to stand alongside Virgin Australia Business Flyer and Velocity Frequent Flyer is validation Sniip has disrupted the manner in which individuals and businesses choose how they make payments. We are so proud to be offering all users something that’s clearly valuable to them.”
A Word from Virgin on the New Partnership
Highlighting Sniip as a pioneer in mobile-bill payments, Velocity Frequent Flyer CEO Nick Rohrlach said, “Businesses can’t avoid paying bills – this partnership offers a compelling reason for our members to use Sniip. Not only can they make payments more easily, but they can now be rewarded at the same time.”
Sniip paves the way to manage all bills. Users can pay everything from ATO to superannuation payments, commercial rent, utilities and now business bills with ease.
Sniip allows customers to turn Points into rewards seamlessly by transferring business’ Velocity Points to a Velocity Frequent Flyer account.
About Virgin Australia
Virgin Australia Group is a major Australian airline headquartered in Brisbane, Australia. The company operates an extensive domestic network as well as short-haul international, charter and cargo services. Virgin Australia’s award-winning loyalty program, Velocity Frequent Flyer, now boasts more than 11 million members. The Group employs more than 7,000 people and has been a competitor in the Australian aviation landscape for 22 years.
About Sniip
Sniip is a mobile bill payments platform. The app allows consumers and businesses to easily pay their bills via the Sniip app, using any debit or credit card. Users can scan a BPAY Biller Code or import a bill from their email using the Sniip app and pay their bills in less than 10 seconds. Learn more or download our app at sniip.com. Through its existing partnerships with BPAY and AMEX, Sniip has continued to scale its business and build its network of users. This has grown by over 250% from 30,000 in January 2021 to more than 85,000 at the end of November, 2022. During the same period, Sniip saw a 1,000% monthly increase in BPAY payment transaction value. The company has now processed more than $600 million worth of bill payment transactions to date.
Earlier this year, our development team at Sniip caught up with Google to have a chat about how Sniip has achieved scale with the help of Google Cloud.
We are very proud to share some of the story behind the building of our industry leading bill-payments platform at Sniip! (Thank you Danny Mills and Lidia Zurek).
Our entire development team is based right here in Brisbane, Australia. We’ve included a Sniipet (😉) of the article below.
Mobile bill payments platform Sniip is allowing customers to pay their bills using American Express or Apple Pay after building a unique connection with BPAY.
The innovative service was made possible using BPAY Group’s open access and collaborative approach to new partnerships. This will cut the time and cost of connecting with the popular payment service.
“BPAY has opened up their tech capability to allow partners like us to create a superior user experience for customers wanting to access the BPAY biller network and its payment rails,” says Sniip CEO Damien Vasta.
For Sniip, it means that customers can still accrue reward points when paying bills on any credit card. The bill payment is ultimately routed through the lower cost BPAY network, which includes more than 60,000 billers. They can also choose to pay with their bank account and pay no transaction fee.
“We give the customer a choice at the front-end of the transaction as to how they want to pay. The best part is that while we are giving customers that flexibility, it does not cost the biller. The payment is arriving to the biller through BPAY in the same way that it would normally be received via a bank,” said Vasta.
Control and flexibility
It gives customers even greater flexibility to choose the account or card they want to pay bills with, on top of the control they already enjoy with BPAY.
While around 20% of consumers use direct debit to pay bills[i], there are many frustrations felt by consumers. This includes needing to update card details when they expire and getting charged more than they expected[ii].
Sniip brings the control of BPAY into one app that is not tied to a single banking institution, which may limit bill payments to its own bank accounts or a linked credit card.
“We started out thinking we needed to be an alternative to BPAY. But we realised that BPAY is just so ubiquitous and trusted by customers that we need to embrace and collaborate with them,” says Vasta.
Sniip initially launched in Queensland in 2015. But its recent decision to partner with BPAY increased the number of billers it could accept to over 60,000 and potential access to an extra 1.5 million daily bill payments.
Sniip continues to build new features
BPAY Group launched a range of APIs in 2019 and to date more than 60 companies have already used the APIs to bring the BPAY service to their customers.
“BPAY APIs are critical. It won’t be where the Sniip product ends, but it’s certainly where the product starts and where we want to really make an impact,” said Vasta.
Sniip also offers customers enhanced features. These include the automatic importing of a bill from an email account, payment scheduling, reminders, and comprehensive receipt storage. Customers can scan their bill with the app rather than manually entering the BPAY biller code and reference number. Sniip allows customers to pay securely via face ID, fingerprint or PIN.
Sniip said it plans to include new bill payment options beyond popular credit and debit cards. This will potentially include loyalty points, bill smoothing finance (Buy-Now-Pay-Later), and cryptocurrencies. Several other innovations are also being developed to make life simpler for businesses. This will include being able to send invoices and customers being able to pay them via Sniip.
“One of the most exciting features that we’re going to be rolling out shortly is BPAY View, which will be the first time it will be made available within a ‘bank agnostic’ bill payment app,” said Vasta.
“This means that all BPAY View-enabled billers will be available to Sniip customers. They will be able to receive household bills digitally and make payment with one click,” he added.
Published by BPAY Pty Ltd (ABN 69 079 137 518) email: marketing@bpay.com.au. The BPAY Scheme is managed by BPAY Pty Limited. When you use BPAY payment products, the BPAY Scheme is paid fees relating to processing costs and BPAY Scheme membership. Contact your financial institution to see if it offers BPAY payment products and to get the Product Disclosure Statement. Any financial product advice provided by BPAY Pty Limited in relation to BPAY payment products is general advice only and has been prepared without taking into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on such advice, you should review the Product Disclosure.
[i] RFI Payments Diary 2020 [ii] RFI Digital Banking March 2021
Hate paying bills, either because you forget them, prefer to avoid direct debits, or don’t like to manually enter the details each time?
If so, you could consider downloading the mobile payments platform Sniip, a rather unique app that’s aiming to make paying bills quicker and easier for Australians.
What is Sniip?
Sniip is a mobile app which allows bills to be digitally-scanned, stored and paid for via the app. Essentially, Sniip can scan the bill’s BPAY biller code, generating a digital bill that can be paid for through the app with the user’s stored payment method such as a credit or debit card. This saves the user from the tediousness of having to enter the biller code and account number manually, with Sniip boasting that the app lets you pay a bill in under 20 seconds.
Initially launched in Toowoomba back in 2014 by Founder and CEO Damien Vasta, Sniip has since established partnerships with Australia Post, BPAY, and also American Express. The app is unique as it is the first mobile payment solution to sit outside of the banking sector.
Customers can register to have all future bills sent straight to the app, such as:
Energy bills
Phone and internet bills
ATO tax bills
Rent and body corporate payments
Insurance – car, health, home and contents etc.
School fees
Rates and water
Car registration and more.
Sniip can connect with every financial institution and biller in Australia, and according to Mr Vasta, it represents the first real change to the payments landscape since BPAY decades earlier.
“When BPAY was introduced in 1997, its centralised online bill payment capabilities revolutionised bill payment for Australian consumers practically overnight,” he said.
“This new partnership and its bank and card-agnostic solution is designed to enhance this capability by providing Australians with a fast, simple, and seamless means to pay any bill through any bank and using any type of mobile.”
Essentially, Sniip was designed to minimise the number of steps required for a customer to pay and manage bills.
“The process is cumbersome and time-consuming and often very restrictive. We thought ‘if you can walk into a store and tap your phone or card against the terminal and make a quick payment, then why can’t you do something of an equivalent nature against a piece of paper that is your bill?’” Mr Vasta told Savings.com.au.
“We want to be the default bill payment app for every single Australian bill.”
While it’s still some way off that ambitious goal, Sniip has so far acquired about 43,000 users and is growing by about 100 customers per day. In March 2021, $12 million worth of bills were processed through the app.
“We don’t profess to make bill payments fun. What we say is we make them less unpleasant,” Mr Vasta said.
While it might sound complicated, the easiest way to describe Sniip is to say it aggregates all payment and bank networks into one central place and lets you pay your bills from there. This means that with Sniip, you can also pay with whatever card or bank you like for whatever bill you like, regardless of any restrictions that normally exist.
“We consider ourselves to be the first customer-centric bill payments platform in the market, certainly from a mobile point of view,” Mr Vasta said.
“What if a customer has multiple accounts across different institutions and they want to switch between them in order to make a payment from one month to the next for the same biller? That’s not customer-centric, that’s bank-centric.
“We’ve aggregated the billers through BPAY and we’ve aggregated the payment sources because you can use a debit card from any institution, you can use a credit card of any kind.”
How can you use Sniip?
Sniip is available to download on either Android or Apple phones from their respective app stores and is also compatible with Apple Pay (Google Pay is planned). It’s available on iOS devices 10 or later and Android versions 6.0 or later, and can be accessed via PIN, Touch ID and Face ID logins.
Is Sniip secure?
Sniip is secure to use, encrypting and safely storing all personal data. Credit/debit card information is only sent to verified third parties at the time of purchase. Once you make a payment, the app requires you to verify your identity with your PIN or ID login.
Can you earn rewards points with Sniip?
According to Sniip’s website, credit card users can still earn exactly the same number of rewards points they would earn through regular purchases and payments. Sniip also has a direct partnership with American Express, enabling Amex customers to access the American Express Offers Program for special discounts and cashback offers.
“Amex is the best at rewarding customers for making payments with their card, and an Amex customer typically has the money to pay that bill, but they want something more for that payment than just being able to actually give someone their money,” Mr Vasta said.
“We’ve opened up that whole Amex market to customers who want to not just buy things but pay for things with an Amex, and most billers or their bank don’t allow that.
“We’ve aggregated the whole BPAY biller network for those customers so that, irrespective of whether the bill allows an Amex payment or not or whether you can pay BPAY with an Amex in your banking app Sniip makes that all possible.”
American Express cards are typically charged a higher credit card surcharge, but because of Sniip’s partnership with Amex, it claims it can offer a surcharge of 1.5% (now 1.29% as at 1 March, 2023).
“We consider it to be the most attractive fee for an Amex card payment in the market when it comes to paying a bill.”
What features does Sniip have?
Aside from those already mentioned (bill consolidation, secure payments, and a central location for credit card reward points), Sniip also offers a variety of features like:
Automatic bill scanning (it can even read your emails and pull bills from there)
A transactions history showing all past bills and payments
PDF and document storage
Schedules, reminders, and push notifications, to help you never forget a bill
Sniip lets you upload bills straight from your email or PDF file. Source: Sniip
“Why would someone use Sniip over their bank? Because they have choice,” Mr Vasta said.
“They can go from one bank to the next, from one card to the next; they can schedule a bill to be paid on the due date and not a day before, they can schedule the bill to make sure that they never miss an early payment discount or pay a late fee, they can pay it on the spot if they want to.”
Sniip does not charge any personal fees for customers to use it; the only costs incurred are those charged by the bank or credit card company for making payments, such as a surcharge. It’s also free to download.
“We want to be everything that you can do through a bank but more. If you’re not interested in a credit card and you want to use a debit card, it will cost you nothing to use Sniip,” Mr Vasta said.
In fact, Sniip could actually save you money, whether that’s through no longer paying late fees, or by eliminating paper bill fees. These fees are commonly charged by phone, internet and energy providers, such as:
AGL: $1.75 per bill
Origin: $1.75 per bill
Energy Australia: $1.69 per bill
Elysian Energy: $3 per bill
Optus: $2.20 per bill
Telstra: $2 per bill
Automating your payments through Sniip can help you avoid these.
Who can benefit the most from using Sniip?
Mr Vasta says Sniip has identified three key profiles of people who can benefit the most from Sniip:
The ‘Points Hunter’
The ‘Life Juggler’
The ‘Figure Out-er’
But According to Mr Vasta, Sniip has got something to offer every bill payer in Australia.
“We’ve built a platform that now is what I consider to be state of the art. You can use a debit card from any institution, you can use a credit card of any kind,” he said.
“We’re talking about minimising the number of steps required for a customer to pay a bill and giving them the ultimate choice as to how they pay.
“Order where there’s otherwise chaos: one central repository for receiving and paying.”
The ‘Points Hunter’ The points hunter isn’t an exclusive demographic to Sniip, but Mr Vasta says they’re someone who can get a lot of value out of it. Points hunters are those who use their credit cards for as many payments and bills as possible in order to maximise their rewards and frequent flyer points.
“They want to be able to get some type of reward for their spending, and that’s what the whole loyalty scheme mentality is about: because they feel as though they’re going to spend that much money, they would like something in return,” Mr Vasta said.
“If credit cards are used responsibly, they can still be an effective tool for managing finances.”
A common roadblock points hunters run into is not being able to use their card for certain things or not earning as many rewards points on some purchases – particularly Amex users. By consolidating every payment into Sniip and bypassing these restrictions, rewards card fans can potentially get better value from their plastic.
The ‘Life Juggler’ The life juggler is another type of user that is simply too busy to manage all their finances manually, and who uses Sniip simply because “it gives them order in their life”.
“They’ve got a busy home life, they’re juggling family, they’re juggling kids, they’re juggling their own work, they’re juggling all of the issues associated with managing that work-life balance,” Mr Vasta said.
“But yet when you receive an email bill with a static PDF attachment that doesn’t actually connect you to a payment, it’s something you put to one side because it requires time, and time is something that life juggler has very little of.
“So Sniip is designed to minimise the amount of time required to pay and to manage a bill. Once the bill comes in with Sniip you can schedule it to be paid on the due date and never have to worry about it again.”
Some of the other features Sniip has, like record-keeping and reminders, can also help bill jugglers get by more easily.
The ‘Figure Out-er’ The figure out-er is the final key user, and they’re more of the new breed of bill payer: someone who expects paying to be easy and flexible.
“To them, the whole ability for people to actually pay is generally mobile intuitive, so they say: why is it that we’re asked to be doing so much manual entry of digits in order to affect banking payments?” Mr Vasta said.
“They need to know it’s secure but they need to make it quick, and Sniip makes bill payments quick.”
Outside of these three groups, Mr Vasta said Sniip had seen unexpected success with elderly Australians and even some customers with disabilities. March 2021 data from Sniip shows 13% of its customers were over 65.
“That tells me that we are easy to use, and I believe that generation is actually more comfortable with a smartphone than they are with a PC,” he said.
“This whole user friendly, intuitive smartphone era has allowed them to actually start using technology in a very easy to use, understandable manner.
“We’ve even got some people who suffer from dyslexia that actually like using our app because they don’t have to worry about getting the numbers in the wrong order, whereas they’d have to manually enter them otherwise.”
Are there any negatives to using Sniip?
Perhaps predictably, Mr Vasta said he “doesn’t see any downside to using Sniip”.
“It’s an alternative payment option: it’s mobile, it’s cheaper than the others, it’s easy for us to implement and it shows that we’re being innovative and we’re responding to the shift from a desktop environment to a mobile environment.”
While it’s not surprising the founder would say such a thing, it’s hard to argue with his assessment.
Although still small, Sniip can already be used by pretty much anyone from any bank or credit network, is free to use (and in the case of American Express can actually be cheaper to use), and aims to make paying bills easier. For some users, it could actually let them pay their bills where they couldn’t before.
To nitpick, one potential issue that could arise from using Sniip is potentially spending too much with a credit card for the sake of points, particularly if it’s a high-interest card. Another is you could end up relying on it too much, so if anything were to ever go wrong, having to pay a manual bill again could prove difficult.
But those are stretching it. Sniip seems to go out of its way to responsibly consolidate people’s bills and make payments easier for them in a secure way.
Savings.com.au’s two cents
Savings.com.au regularly highlights apps that help people with their money, and Sniip so far appears to be one of the best of them. In an increasingly digital world, staying on top of bills and money can be difficult and frustrating, so an app that manages these for you sounds like a great idea.
