Is contactless payment in our future?

Many countries and businesses already use contactless payment. It could be by a fob or a smart card that uses RFID to transact the payment for merchandise or services negating the use for cash or pin numbers. This saves both the merchant and the customer time and a degree of security by not having to use a pin to transact the purchase.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) has been used for years in businesses for inventory control. Contactless payment is just an extension of this technology. Since no pin is used, there should be a degree of security for all of your purchases. The security comes from not having to enter anything to pay for your goods or services. All it takes is to pass a fob or smart card near the reader and the transaction is complete. For added security some businesses have their readers set to read only at a distance of about 50 millimetres. At this distance, it should be hard for anyone to be able to scan your fob or smartcard, thereby offering a degree of security for your contactless payment.

Imagine not having to carry cash, a cheque book, or a bank card. You never need to sign or put your pin in for the transaction that someone can oversee; just swipe your fob and you have paid from your bank account for your purchases without anyone being able to garner any information about you of any type.

With a short distance from the reader, a quick pass and the reader catches all of the information required for a contactless payment and you are on your way. This saves time for all, guards against identity theft and is better for the merchant. The merchant will never have to worry about a cheque bouncing, and credit card fraud and the use of a bank cheque card will be things of the past if contactless payment becomes the norm.

Is contactless payment secure?

Yes, is the simple answer; by using 128-bit encryption technology, the same that is used for online banking, your device will generate a code to interact with the merchants point-of-sale (POS), and since no two cards or device will have the same key, each transaction from each device will be different. This separates each individual. This is like the swipe cards used to identify individuals that access secure buildings or rooms that have been used for years. You even see this technology on shows or movies on the television. You should have no fear of using contactless payment as a method of making your purchase by interacting with the merchants POS device. One form of the contactless payment has been in use for over two decades with no problem.
With internet banking fraud, the financial industry has worked hard to create multiple levels of security for all financial transactions.  These new levels of security are also applied to contactless payment transactions safe from any type of possible security risk using contactless payment.