Vodafone Italia has teamed up with CartaSi to offer customers a prepaid card that can be used to purchase goods via NFC technology.

Launched with the support of MasterCard and l’Istituto Centrale delle Banche Popolari Italiane, Vodafone’s Smart Pass card can be used for both contactless payments at PayPass-enabled points of sale, as well as standard chip and pin transactions.

Smart Pass, which is linked to the user’s mobile phone number, can be topped up in the same way as a prepaid mobile phone at some 200,000 points throughout Italy and through all CartaSi channels, according to Vodafone.

In addition to the card, Vodafone has also launched a new mobile banking app that allows users to check and manage their balances, transfer money from card to card, shop online and pay bills from their mobile phone.

“Vodafone Smart Pass is our first step towards the NFC ecosystem,” said Vodafone Italia in a release, adding that SIM-based NFC contactless payments transactions are soon to follow.