What may have seemed like technological fantasist’s dreams just a few years ago, contactless payments have become a norm to many people globally and continue to gain traction across the globe. In the UK, more than a quarter of all payments are now made using contactless payments.
Contactless payments offer the consumer the ultimate experience by just tapping and going. This can be done via a contactless bank card; a payment-enabled mobile (most smartphones that have NFC) or an NFC wearable device.
The mobile device has played a huge role in us becoming more digitally enabled and therefore new technologies in the payment world have evolved off the back of this.
The one element that has not yet been spoken about is customer fraud and what this might look like with the rise of contactless payments across the globe. Each market will have different issues and we have recently seen that in the UK, contactless payment limits have now increased to £100, up from £45.
This means a customer can simply tap and go without needing to authenticate themselves at the point of sale for amounts up to £100. The questions that need to be raised are around customer security.
It was only a few days back where vulnerabilities in Apple Pay and Visa were exposed. Hackers could bypass an iPhone’s Apple Pay lock screen and perform contactless payments with saved Visa cards in the Apple Wallet. There is simply a need for security and this needs to be carefully balanced with consumer experience.
Recently, WIZZIT Digital conducted a poll asking participants how they would rank various methods for contactless payments.
For contactless card payments:
No PIN – irrespective of the value
0%
PIN – irrespective of the value
5%
PIN – but I will set the value
95%
This is why we at WIZZIT have decided that our customers’ security is our number one priority, but still providing the best-in-class mobile technologies. We have transformed a merchant’s life by enabling them to use their smartphone for acquiring payments.
On the paying customer side, they can either pay through their NFC Wallet (Apple Pay/Google Pay) which will not require further PIN entry or they can Tap their card for a Tap and Go payment.
The limit for PIN can be set by our banking partners and what we are seeing happening more and more is banking partners letting their own customers choose their contactless limit.
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