By Gemma Simpson, 4 May 2007 11:56
NEWS
Visa is to launch contactless 'wave and pay' cards this autumn to replace low-value cash transactions across the UK.
The rollout will start in London and act as a springboard for the widespread adoption of the Visa 'payWave' cards by retailers and consumers across the country.
Around 200,000 consumers are expected to use the contactless cards in the first few months, along with some 2,000 retailers deploying card readers.
The technology will allow people to pay for low-value transactions that total less than £10 - such as coffee and newspapers - by waving their card over a read. The tech speeds up transaction times as it largely dispenses with the need for the customer to enter a PIN number or sign a receipt.
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September will see the commercial rollout of the new Barclaycard Visa credit card, developed with Transport for London and Transys and featuring contactless payWave technology combined on the same card with the Oyster transit function. Visa payWave cards will also be issued by other Visa banks.
Visa will then introduce contactless payWave facilities at retailers around some of London's transport centres, including Canary Wharf, Liverpool Street and Waterloo stations.
Cardholders will be asked for their PIN numbers periodically to make sure the card remains with its genuine owner.
The Visa contactless card will be launched in partnership with banks including Barclays, HBOS, HSBC and Lloyds TSB.
In the UK, 80 per cent of the 27 billion cash transactions that take place annually are for items totalling less than £10, according to Visa.
Further payWave launches are expected in the rest of Europe with the next one due to be announced in Turkey, while France, Spain and Switzerland are well on the way to gaining the tech too.
Barclaycard, Transport for London and Visa teamed up to develop the tech to put contactless payments and Oyster card functionality together on the country's plastic last year.
After introducing the Oyster card-style contactless payment tech into its plastic Barclays has been working on a contactless system for the UK's taxis.
Comments
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1. anonymous
This sounds really safe to me, you have your wallet nicked and then 20 purchases for 2 cans of lager later and you are broke.
Where is the security and how will this decrease fraud. Who will pay once your hard earned money has been deposited down the pan of the local pub by the scroat who nicked your wallet 10 minutes ago.
Good idea but where is the security (other than the occasional check on pin number (which probably won't happen))
2. anonymous
I was under the impression that Chip and pin was a critical measure in combatting fraud as the use of a signature was fundamentally flawed.
UK retail has invested millions in upgrading PoS systems to accept chip, with no real ROI.
So fraud now migrates to a card that needs neither signature nor PIN most of the time?
I really dont understand it!
3. anonymous
Come on!
Ditch the magnetic strip that aids fraudters and funds terrorism.
"We have to have the magnetic strip because of International Standards" you say?
Leaving the strip on the back facilitates fraud, and as UK customers we don't have 'International Standards' when it comes to customer protection from Credit Card fraud.
I'm a customer. I don't go abroad often and if I did I could use another card that has the strip.
STOP FACILITATING FRAUD!
4. Bryan Scott
Where is the check on the user ?
How many £10 are cleared before someone's account is cleaned out.
How do you prove that some lowlife has stolen and is using your card how do they ( Vise ) prove that it was you using the card?
One wonders some times if the whole reason that the Card companies are happy with the abismal level of security is that they indirectly make money out it.
5. Andrew Meredith
This card is not banknote, but it is trying to play one on TV. The payment card industry has seen off the cheque, which is now unaccepable in a growing number of retail locations. They are now after cash. However, these cards have all of the bad characteristics of cash and none of the good ones.
Cash has no security to speak of, and neither do these.
However, when you have had your wallet lifted and the money present therin has been removed, that is the limit of your losses in terms of cash. With the wave-and-lose cards, the card will just keep on giving until some sort of limit is hit .. hopefully not your overdraft limit.
I have also not seen any discussion about the possibilities of cards being accessed while still in the user's own wallet. A small day sack could probably contain enough gizmos to connect to and abstract from one of these cards.
Suffice to say, I will not be allowing one of these things to be connected to my bank account. I have enough concerns about CnP cards.