Everything You Need to Know About Contactless Payments. If you want to know everything about contactless payment, then you are reading the right article today. We are going to be focusing on this so that by the end, you have all the necessary information you need.
The word contactless simply means making payments contactless or wirelessly without the need to have cash with you. The world is continuing to advance as the days go by and we have outgrown the need to take cash with us when making purchases.
We now live in a cashless society where instead of physical cash, people take their credit, debit, and smart cards to make payments. That being said, today we are going to be looking at everything you need to know about contactless payments.
Everything You Need to Know About Contactless Payments
As technology continues to advance, contactless payment methods are becoming the new normal for people paying for goods and services. Carrying physical cash around to make payments in restaurants, stoves, and anywhere else you need to pay for a service or good is now almost obsolete. These days, people walk around with their credit or debit cards. Most people even use their smartphones to make payments.
What is Contactless Payment?
Contactless payment is paying for a good or service using a debit, credit, smart card, or any other device to make payments. In contactless payments, money is paid wirelessly for a good or service using radio-frequency identification (RFID) or near-field communication (NFC). The essence of this is that physical cash is not needed to make payment for any good or service.
This payment method simply works when a customer taps a payment card or any device into any of the machines capable of reading them to make payments. Most of the time, contactless payment is referred to as “tap-and-go” or simply “tap” by many banks and retailers.
How do Contactless Payments work?
The way contactless payment work is easy this is because it allows customers to pay for goods and services using NFC or RFID technology. Contactless payment does not require the customer to enter a personal identification number before the transaction is authorized.
When a customer walks into a merchant and buys a product and wants to pay via contactless payment, this is what happens. The machine prompts the customer to pay by swiping or bringing the card close to the contactless payment symbol on the machine terminal. Now the information from the card is transferred electronically using the chip in the card to the bank.
If the system accepts the payment or tap, the customer will be notified with a beeping green light. Once the card is accepted and the transaction is approved, the customer will be debited and the transaction is complete.
The Benefits of Contactless Payments
There are many benefits that contactless payment has to offer. Some of these are listed below for you to see:
- It basically causes the spread of germs because you do not use your hand to touch the merchant point of sale machine, which has been touched by many people. limiting contact and preventing the spread of germs.
- It eliminates the need to go to the register in a bank to collect money.
- This reduces the time you spend in the bank.
- Watches and smartphones can also be used to make contactless payments.
- It saves employees from having to handle physical cash.
Above are some of the best benefits that you should know so that you can consider using contactless payment today if you have a business or not.
Examples of Contactless Payments
Contactless payment is mostly used by banks, but that does not stop other companies from making use of it. Other companies, such as Apple, Google, and Samsung, have their own systems that use contactless payment. Some of the examples of contactless payments are listed below:
- Apple pay
- Google Pay
- Samsung Pay
- Venmo
Contactless Payment History
Contactless payment has been around for quite a while now, but it has only just been blowing up in the last decade. In 1995, the Seoul bus transportation association launched the first-ever contactless payments for people that were using their service. Then, in 1996, the first version of the EVM security standard was published.
In 2004, the first use of contactless cards was seen in the US for the first time. In 2008, Visa, American Express, and MasterCard all started making use of contactless payment cards. When it came to 2011, Google Wallet and all the Android pay systems began to sprout up. Apple and Samsung joined the bandwagon in 2014 and since then have been implemented on a wide variety of services.
How to Make Contactless Payments
Making a contactless payment is easy and very fast to do. Just follow the below procedure to know how to do it:
- First of all, you need to visit any authorized merchant.
- Make a purchase of any item.
- When it comes time to make a payment, bring out your contactless payment card or device.
- Place your device or contactless card close to the vendor’s reader.
- When the transaction is approved, a beeping green light will be displayed or an okay symbol.
If that happens, then you have successfully made a payment using your contactless card or device.
Contactless Payment Frequently Asked Questions
How long do contactless payments take to process?
Contactless payments are very fast and they take a few seconds to process as long as everything is in order. However, it may take up to 2 to 4 working days depending on the bank for this payment to usually show up on the account transaction. Sometimes they may show up as a pending transaction before they simply become an approved transaction.
What is the limit on contactless payment?
If you do not have a daily limit on the amount of money you can withdraw from your account, then there is no limit on your contactless payment. There is a daily limit for contactless payment. But if you have not made use of your contactless payment for a while, you need to put it into the machine and enter your pin before you can start using it again.
What do you mean by contactless payments?
Contactless payment is simply paying for goods or services using your credit, debit, smart card, or any other device rather than paying cash.
