What exactly is PACE Pay in PACE Drive and what advantages does it bring?

In Germany, contactless and mobile payments are becoming increasingly popular – a large proportion of the German population now makes contactless payments; particularly young people between the ages of 18 and 29 are opting for mobile payment methods (mastercard report, June 2021). The desire for in-vehicle payment is increasing as well (mastercard report, September 2022). When it comes to refueling, this is no different. If you need things to go fast, you benefit from many advantages with mobile payment at the gas station, e.g. with PACE Pay in the PACE Drive app.

What is PACE Pay exactly?

As a fueling app, PACE Drive offers a number of payment options, which are grouped together in the app under PACE Pay:

• PayPal
• Credit and debit cards
  (AMEX, Visa, MasterCard; all exclusively with activated 3-D Secure)
• giropay
  (currently not via ING DiBa and comdirect)
• Google Pay
• Apple Pay
• Fuel cards
  (e.g. HoyerCard, Roadrunner, ZGM-Card)

You can easily add and delete these payment options in the app’s settings under “Your account” and the menu item “Payment methods”. To save a new payment method, the app guides you intuitively through the process. During the fueling process, you can simply choose your favored payment method from the ones you have previously added.

It is always possible to store multiple payment methods at the same time. Apple Pay is, for example, set up by you on your smartphone and can automatically be selected and used as a payment method in the PACE Drive app.

What are the advantages of PACE Pay?

PACE Drive allows you to pay quickly, easily and securely without having to carry cash or a credit card. This means you don’t have to wait in long lines when you need to refuel quickly. The electronic receipts are all reliably stored in the PACE Drive app and are also sent to you via email.

This means you no longer have to struggle with a bulging wallet or a clogged glove compartment. At the same time, the payment data is always secure, and every payment is transmitted in encrypted form.

Up to now, you have probably known PACE Drive as an application for your smartphone or smartwatch. Since September 2022, payment by app is also possible via the car dashboard with Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.

How secure is mobile payment via PACE Pay?

Since your payment data in particular requires the highest level of security, it is stored separately from your other personal information and specially protected. This also means that your data is encrypted during the entire payment process. Depending on the payment method and device, payments have to be confirmed via PIN, fingerprint or facial recognition before information is forwarded.

Even if you don’t want to use PACE Drive with certain payment data anymore, PACE Pay guarantees a high level of security. Should you decide to delete payment information, this happens immediately and irrevocably.

In addition, we have introduced two-factor authentication for logging in on a new device some time ago. This ensures that the information you provide really belongs to you and that no one but you can access your PACE account.

Where and how can I pay with PACE Pay?

You can pay with PACE Pay in the PACE Drive app at all participating partner gas stations. This includes gas stations with or without a gas station store (fuel automat) – so you can pay with both Post-Pay and Pre-Auth systems. These are all marked in the PACE Drive app with a blue icon on your displayed map. Likewise, information about whether you can make mobile payments there and which payment methods are accepted can be found in the details of the gas station. The number of participating gas stations is growing steadily in Germany and abroad.

The successful completion of your payment is confirmed with a receipt, which is displayed in the app immediately after the payment and which you also receive by email. PACE Drive will also confirm that you can now continue your journey. The cashier at the gas station is informed about your successful payment in the POS system.