OREANDA-NEWS. Yandex (NASDAQ:YNDX) has announced a new cashless way to pay cab fares in Moscow. Starting today, users of the Yandex.Taxi iPhone app can pay by bankcard – even if the taxi isn’t equipped with a card terminal.

Yandex.Taxi users can now pay cab fares by transferring the required sum to the taxi company from a bankcard that they’ve already linked up to their Yandex.Money account. To confirm the payment, the user simply enters the code from the back of their card (CVV2/CVC2) straight into the app’s interface on their iPhone. Of course, there’s also the option of paying directly from a Yandex.Money account if it contains sufficient funds.

“In many countries it’s possible to pay for practically anything with a bankcard, and in Russia it’s gradually becoming the norm as well, especially in big cities,” said Lev Volozh, head of the Yandex.Taxi service. “People enjoy the convenience of using bankcards to make payments in shops, restaurants and at the cinema ¬– but in Moscow there are still very few taxis equipped to take bankcards. With the help of our service, people can pay for their taxi ride whichever way suits them best – by cash or by card.”

Thanks to the new service’s integration with Yandex.Money, users can be confident that their transaction will be fast and secure: they can pay by card without actually handing their card to the driver or disclosing their card details to the taxi company. Yandex.Money has been working with bankcards for a long time and has a strong track record, having processed millions of transactions, including payments to many transportation providers. Yandex.Money can already be used to buy plane, train and intercity bus tickets.

At present, approximately half of the taxis working with Yandex.Taxi in Moscow are ready to accept such payments – the first to come on board are Taxi-Ritm, Taxi@SMS, City Mobil and Taksik. To ensure that the taxi service sends a car that will accept cash-free fare payments, the user just needs to choose the bankcard or Yandex.Money option from the payment preferences section when ordering a taxi.