Have you ever wondered how services like Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay work? No, it’s not by magic… it’s by using NFC ( near field communication) technology, otherwise known a contactless payment. It works by allowing your customers to pay for services in-person at a credit card machine or online with their smartphones without their physical card. Simply put, customers can just hold up their mobile devices to pay.
When a contactless payment is initiated, the NFC technology goes to work using RFID (radio-frequency identification) a technology allowing us to identify things through radio waves. Within seconds, the NFC-enabled reader and the smartphone pass encrypted information back and forth to complete the payment. RFID isn’t a newfangled technology,—it’s actually been used for decades in grocery stores, on luggage in baggage claims, and by granting access through identification cards for office buildings and private garages.
NFC terminals are fast, easy, and do not require an internet connection. Speed, in fact, is one of the coolest parts of NFC payments. They take a fraction of the time of magstripe and chip card transactions—and are leagues faster than cash.
Is it Secure?
NFC payments are extremely secure—way more secure, in fact, than magnetic-stripe cards.
NFC terminals and payment chips allow users to avoid many of the most common credit card theft tactics which are either compromising the terminal itself or breaking into the merchant’s servers to access valuable customer information. A NFC terminal that accepts contactless payments can help customers avoid both of these scenarios because it removes the need to swipe a card at all.
How does this benefit your business?
There are clear advantages for your business and your customers experience to accepting contactless payments. These services provide an improved shopping experience, fraud protection that is more secure than traditional card payments, shorter lines, and these services do not charge additional payment processing fees.
What does it cost you, the business owner to implement an NFC system?
Apart from upgrading your old terminal to a NFC system, there is no associated cost of using contactless payments. Businesses nor customers pay for use of contactless payments like Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Google Pay, etc. It’s actually the card issuers, such as Chase, Bank of America etc. that pays the 0.15% cost on every transaction.
Accepting contactless payments has quickly emerged as a cornerstone capability in the future of retail.