Contactless payment technology has been around for a while now. For years, countries across the globe have been employing this novel way of paying for goods.
But not in the US! Nope, here in America, we’ve been far slower on the uptake. In 2018, for instance, an estimated 3% of US bank cards were contactless, compared with 96% in South Korea.
Clearly, people everywhere are tapping and swiping away, while we’re stuck signing receipts!
That might not seem like a big deal. After all, in the grand scheme of things, inserting your card and inputting your pin only takes a few extra seconds. However, time isn’t the only issue here.
Health and security come into play too.
Want to find out more about the health and security advantages of having a contactless payment card in your wallet? Keep reading!
Health Benefits of a Contactless Payment Card
Contactless cards make paying for anything an absolute breeze. Better still, they’re more hygienic and better for your health as well. Here’s how:
1. Avoid Dirty POS Devices
Typical point of sale (POS) devices aren’t exactly what you’d call ‘hygienic’.
Think about how many hundreds of hands touch them every single day! Customers and vendors touch them all the time, moving them around and inputting their pins. The result?
A wide array of germs are transmitted in the process.
Someone might have the flu, for example, or have touched something dirty just beforehand. Any bacteria they picked up is then transferred to the POS device. The next customer then has the misfortune of coming into contact with it.
Contactless payment technology removes this issue. There’s no need to touch anything other than your card, thereby reducing the chance of picking up/transmitting any germs.
2. No More Handling Dirty Money
Handling cash isn’t much better than using ordinary POS systems. In fact, it’s arguably far worse.
The coins and notes in your wallet could have been handled by thousands of people before you. And, unlike POS devices, it’s highly unlikely that they’ve ever been sanitized!
Once again, contactless payments make a significant difference. They reduce the need to carry any cash in the first place and remove the need to touch anything that could be contaminated.
3. Reduced Waiting Times
Imagine going shopping in mid-winter, the heart of flu-season.
Walking around crowded malls and standing in line for check-outs can be more dangerous than you think. The close proximity to other people means you could, inadvertently, pick up any illness that someone’s carrying.
Longer waits increase the chance of such problems occurring! Thankfully, contactless payments speed up the shopping experience and reduce waiting times. You can get away from overcrowded and sickness-laden spaces far sooner.
Security Benefits of Contactless Payments
Contactless cards have a bad reputation in terms of security.
Many people assume that your money’s less protected; that you’re at more risk of financial trouble. The reality’s very different though. Here’s why:
1. The Card Stays in Your Hand
Think about what happens when you pay for something with a traditional chip and pin bank card. You push it into the device and let go while you use the keypad to insert your pin. Right?
In the process, you leave yourself open to trouble. Take your eyes away for a split second and somebody could steal it!
You never know, you could become a mark for a pair of scam artists as well. All it takes is for one of them to distract you while the other pockets your card.
That’s far harder with contactless technology though. The card stays in your hand at all times and the transaction is completed in milliseconds. You get it back into the safety of your wallet before anything goes amiss.
2. Advanced Technology Protects Payments
A common concern with contactless payments involves duplicate transactions.
Many people worry that they’ll somehow tap their card multiple times and pay more than once in the process! Thankfully, that’s never going to happen in reality. Contactless cards incorporate high-tech systems that prevent such issues from occurring.
3. Contactless Transactions Are Capped
In a worst-case scenario, someone could steal your contactless card and use it at will. With no pin required, they could tap and swipe away at their leisure, spending all your hard-earned money as they went. Right?
Wrong!
For one thing, contactless payments are capped. Most countries that use them enforce a limit on how much you can spend on one purchase. With a spending cap of $30 or so, it’s far harder for fraudulent payments to make any serious dent in your bank balance.
More importantly, though, you can easily contact your bank and cancel the card as soon as it’s gone missing. Freeze or cancel it via your mobile banking app to stop any potential issues occurring at all. Finally, your bank will amend any fraudulent payments that do take place anyway.
4. Waiting Times Decrease
Not all security concerns are related to finances though. From a business perspective, protecting customer satisfaction is just as important!
Thankfully, contactless cards have you covered here as well.
Imagine a coffee shop with a long line of impatient people queuing out the door for their morning coffee. The longer they have to wait, the more disgruntled they become; many might even leave and go elsewhere. This would be far less of an issue with contactless payments.
Consider an iPad POS stand. With one of these in place, the payment process would be smoother and faster, decreasing wait times. Customers would enjoy a better experience and leave more satisfied as a result.
Remember These Benefits of Using Contactless Payment
Contactless payment cards are widely used around the world- except in America.
That’s bad news for us!
As we’ve seen, this novel payment technology provides a host of benefits versus traditional methods. Adopt it, and you stand to gain in terms of convenience, health, and safety all at once. Hopefully, this post has demonstrated why that’s the case.
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