Contactless Payment Methods
One of the fastest growing payment methods is the contactless method.
What exactly is contactless payment and just how popular is it?
Contactless payment methods are credit and debit cards, smartcards
or other devices that use RFID for making payments. The consumer simply
waves their card or device over the point of sale device and the purchase
is made. There are no PIN numbers or signatures required with contactless
payment methods that are small and that means they are quick and easy.
More and more companies are offering contactless payment methods including
American Express, Citibank and Barclays. MasterCard in Canada has said
that they have seen a 25% increase in use of their PayPass credit cards.
The future is bright for contactless payment methods. There are about
10 million contactless enabled cards in the UK with that number going
up all the time. MasterCard is predicting that people will spend 30%
more with contactless payment methods than they do with normal credit
cards. They have also said that they expect more than 150 million mobile
devices to be contactless enabled in the next few years. Visa has recently
introduced PayWave as their contactless payment method.
Contactless payment methods are great for banks and businesses and
they are convenient for users but the one downside is that customers
may be more likely to spend more freely and overextend themselves because
it is so easy to make purchases.
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