Contactless Smart Cards, RFID, Payment, Transit and Security

One year after nationwide launches, big three U.S. payment card brands remain bullish on contactless

Wednesday, August 23, 2006


After two-plus years of pilots in various parts of the U.S., each of the big three credit card providers rolled out their own contactless payment version last year. So, after a year in operation how are things going?

Actually, since the pat answer from all three is “very well, better than expected, etc.” the better question would be, what’s next? A lot, as it turns out, from different form factors, including watches, to use of mobile phones as a payment medium, to tapping and going your way through the New York Metro turnstile.

There are 1616 words in the rest of this article …

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McDonald’s and Barclaycard are gearing up to launch NFC awareness campaigns aimed at spurring the adoption of contactless payment technology, according to MarketingWeek.

Barclaycard, which holds the highest share (71%) of the UK contactless market, reports that contactless transactions have doubled in the last year, but are still “nowhere near” where they want to be, according to Tom Gregory, Barclaycard’s head of digital payments.

read more »

A new survey from Euro Kartensysteme shows that Germans are starting to embrace the idea of contactless and NFC payments.

Out of 1,040 Germans aged 18-59, 43% responded that they would like to make contactless payments if given the opportunity, of which 58% percent would make their payments with a debit card card, 41% with a credit card and 50% with an NFC phone.

read more »

K-Plussa launched an upgraded, contactless version of its cash card to provide a faster and easier shopping experience for costumers at the checkout. K-Plussa is a customer loyalty programmed in Finland offering benefits to its customers from over 3,000 shopping places and over 40 business partners.

read more »

Superdrug, one of Britain’s largest beauty and health retailers, has introduced contactless payment for its in-store customers, according to Retail Gazette.

Created by Streamline and Visa Europe, the contactless system will enable customers to make payments of up to £15 (approx. USD $23) by simply waving their contactless bank card at the more than 50 participating Superdrug stores in London and Liverpool.

read more »

The European Payments Council (EPC) has published the second edition of its “White Paper on Mobile Payments.”

According to EPC, the white paper focuses on the usage of the mobile payments in the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) and explores how m-payment services can be delivered through cooperation between service providers in the payment industry and players within the mobile ecosystem.

read more »

Proxama has announced a partnership with semiconductor supplier ARM Holdings to create secure payment mechanisms for mobile handsets.

The UK-based partners say they will combine ARM’s TrustZone technology with Proxama’s Mobile Wallet to develop a “highly secure” environment for NFC-enabled mobile contactless payments and mobile internet payments.

read more »

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