Contactless payment – progress so far

Mastercard Paypass

In March this year the results of the City trial of contactless payment were just becoming available, the Barclaycard Onepulse had just launched, predictions for the number of terminals by christmas were 100,000 and the plans for issuing cards were 5 million by the end of 2008.

Well, its nearly September and some retail outlets are adopting the technology. EAT and Commidea were the first to implement an integrated contactless payment system and won the Payment Solution Award at the European Retail Solutions Awards. Coffee Republic are rolling out contactless to their 16 company owned branches and are hoping to include the franchise estate over the next year. Yo! Sushi and Krispy Kreme are other high street names quoted as signed up.

The cold hard numbers are not looking as though they are going to meet the earlier preditions however. In an article in ITPRO on June 16th APACS stated that there were 337,000 contactless cards in circulation and just 6,000 sites which could process them (of these 1,000 were part of the trial). See link for full article. In a survey carried out in June by CPP 88% of Brits had not heard of contactless payment.

Implementation of contactless payment systems is entirely voluntary. There are none of the compliance considerations that Chip and Pin and PCIDSS carry. It is a purely business decision – does the reduction in transaction time and increase in business due to customers choosing to shop at outlets which have the system implemented, justify the cost of implementing the technology? In the current climate, it looks asthough most chains are waiting to assess the business case and letting the technology gather momentum.

Or are retailers waiting to see if cards are the eventual medium for this technology. Could it be the mobile phones are the eventual solution? Whatever the case, the move towards a cashless economy is only inching forward at present.

Is the consolidation of plastic in your wallet as per the Onepulse necessarily a good thing?

The move to contactless payment is gathering pace. Travelling on the tube I saw an advertisement for the Barclaycard Onepulse – an oyster, credit and cashless payment card all in one – no surprise that it was on the Jubillee line, stopping at Canary Wharf, right in the heart of the trial area. 3600 sites now accept contactless payment in London and predictions are that 5 million cards will be issued by the end of the year.

However, with the Onepulse in particular, Is the consolidation of plastic in your wallet as per the Onepulse necessarily a good thing? Lose your “ticket” on the tube and your credit card has gone. Get your wallet stolen and you can’t even get home using the ticket in your pocket. Following a near detainment in a hotel in India which could have been avoided if I had had additional back up plastic, I was looking at carrying more plastic not less – a back up plan is always useful!

Contactless Payment – the need for integration

The contactless payment trial that has been running in the City has been using non-integrated bank terminals. This approach somewhat negates the queue-busting benefits of this technology. By the time the amount to pay has been keyed into the terminal you might as well handle cash.

It has just been announced in Retail Week that EAT in Moorgate is the first to go live with integrated contactless payment. Congratulations to Commidea (EFT provider), Barclaycard (Merchant Aquirer), Common Sense (EPOS provider) and of course EAT!

Next time I am in the city, I shall try it out.