Member Article

Contactless: Where to start?

Contactless: Where to start?

Are you intrigued with the new way to pay and find yourself wanting to get involved with all things ‘tap and go’?

New technology can seem daunting, but whether you have a shop on the high street or a market stall, you too can enter the world of contactless. These top tips will help you get started.

Technically speaking

There are an estimated 125 transactions a minute on VISA cards alone in Britain with contactless activity growing at an average rate of 22 per cent every quarter. An incredible £461.6million was spent in the UK on VISA contactless cards in the year to September 2013.

Contactless payment uses a short-range wireless system called Near Field Communications (NFC). Debit and credit chip cards are fitted with an antenna that enable them to communicate with devices at a radius of up to five centimeters. Customers pass their cards close to a contactless enabled payment machine at the point of sale to register their payment.

When ready to pay for an item, customers hold their cards in close proximity to a contactless enabled machine, which will then register payment.

One of the key reasons why this method is becoming the customer’s favourite is down to how quickly the transactions take place. Payments are processed within seconds and safety measures are in place so that if the terminal senses more than one card in the NFC range the transaction is rejected.

The card terminals are programmed so they only take one payment from one card at any one time. To put through a second payment, the card must be removed from the NFC range to initiate the next transaction.

Who issues the cards?

A number of banks are up and running with contactless cards including Barclays, HSBC, NatWest, Lloyds, Capital One, Co-operative Bank, MBNA and RBS. MasterCard branded cards use a system called PayPass while Visa has its own type called PayWave.

It’s as easy as A,B,C…

Keep these three simple rules in mind and you’ll be on your way!

A) Look: Position the contactless sign close to your point of sale

B) Touch: Keep an eye on how the cardholder presents their card to the reader, and ensure they hold it still until the light turns green.

C) Confirm: Once you hear the beep you know the payment has been successfully processed.

* Andy Macauley is Chief Operating Officer at merchant services company Handepay, http://www.handepay.co.uk/news/understanding-contactless-payments?utm_source=bdaily.co.uk&utm_medium=Web-Articles&utm_campaign=Contactless-Payment-Whitepaper

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Handepay .