Contactless payment

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Icon for payment cards and POS terminals that support contactless payment
Contactless payment at a POS terminal

Contactless payments (English contactless payment ) refers to a payment function, for in the payments. B. be handled via Near Field Communication ( NFC for short ). Contactless payment is now supported by most payment cards and current smartphones and POS terminals . Payment cards include girocards (formerly known as EC cards ) as well as credit and debit cards from Visa , Mastercard or American Express, for example .

function

Almost all payment cards use an NFC chip for contactless payments . The transmission range of such an NFC chip is usually limited to a maximum of four centimeters, in practice the NFC payment often only works up to a distance of one centimeter. Many modern smartphones also have an NFC chip, which means that they also support contactless payment. In addition, depending on which mobile payment app is used, access to the current account or entry of credit card details is necessary on a smartphone , provided the app does not have a cyber wallet .

For contactless payment to work, not only the payment card or smartphone, but also the POS terminal must support NFC technology. Payment cards and terminals that support contactless payment are marked with a radio symbol made up of curved lines.

In addition to NFC, there are other technologies that support contactless payment, for example by scanning barcodes or QR codes .

In the case of a transaction using NFC, the card number, the expiry date and the amount are transferred. The transmission is usually confirmed by a beep.

Pin entry

In Germany, the maximum amount for contactless payments without entering the PIN is 50 euros per transaction. As a rule, this amount cannot be changed by the user. Previously, the limit was usually 25 euros, a few banks had already set the maximum amount closer to 50 euros, including Mastercard. In Austria, the limit was raised to 50 euros from April 13th for the duration of the COVID-19 crisis .

If the specified maximum amount is exceeded in one use, if a total of 150 euros paid over several uses, and no later than the fifth use without entering the PIN, the PIN must be re-entered. This is what the PSD2 directive requires . Occasionally it can happen that the PIN has to be entered in other cases. The bank decides this randomly or on the basis of certain patterns in order to prevent misuse .

The Consumer Device Cardholder Verification Method , or CDCVM for short, is used for payments with smartphones, for example via Apple Pay or Google Pay . With this procedure, the identity of the person is confirmed using a fingerprint scanner or the camera, so that a PIN no longer has to be entered.

The contactless function can often be deactivated for payment cards.

In August 2020, researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich demonstrated a way of bypassing the PIN protection function of credit cards from Visa Inc. and making contactless payments above the maximum amount applicable for contactless payments without entering a PIN.

distribution

The credit and debit cards from Visa , Mastercard or American Express have had NFC chips in Germany and around the world for a long time and thus also have the function of contactless payment. Among other things, the company has been offering Visa payment cards with the contactless payment function in Great Britain since 2007. With German girocards , the spread of the contactless function has increased significantly, especially since 2017 and 2018. Girocards are then called Girocard contactless . Contactless payment with a Sparkasse Girocard (“Sparkasse Card”) currently only works in Germany. From March 2019, newly issued cards will also support the contactless function of Maestro and V Pay , which will allow contactless use outside of Germany. As of September 2018, the Volks- und Raiffeisenbanken have issued around 14 million girocards with NFC functionality. Around 23 million girocards already support contactless payment at the savings banks . Almost all German bank customers should have a girocard with an NFC chip by 2022.

Visa and Mastercard announced in 2014 that from 2020 it will be possible to pay with NFC at every POS terminal across Europe . The acceptance points for contactless payments were significantly less common in Germany up to 2016 than in other EU countries or the USA, for example. Since 2017 and 2018, acceptance has also increased steadily in Germany. The first acceptance points for contactless payment in Germany included retailers with high customer frequency , including supermarkets , grocery stores , drugstore chains and hardware stores . As of September 2018, there are around 800,000 point-of-sale terminals in Germany, of which, according to retailers, around 75% or 600,000 devices support contactless payment. The German banking industry advocates terminals without a PIN pad, making payment via NFC unavoidable. According to market researchers, "by 2022 [...] 78 percent of all cash registers available worldwide will be NFC-enabled".

safety

In order to be able to make a contactless payment, the distance to the terminal must not be more than four centimeters. The credit card has to be held in front of the reader for a brief moment to prevent unintentional, contactless payment. To protect yourself against data theft , the credit card can be placed in a special protective cover that prevents spying on with the help of apps or special devices.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Contactless payment: How it works and what are the catches. In: MDR Jump . September 14, 2018, accessed September 27, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b c NFC technology: This is how contactless payment works. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . April 20, 2018. Retrieved September 25, 2018 .
  3. ↑ What is NFC? Pay contactless: EC & credit cards with NFC function. In: Finanztip . August 28, 2018. Retrieved September 25, 2018 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h NFC function: Contactless payment - bank customers need to know that. In: Hamburger Abendblatt . July 30, 2018, accessed September 25, 2018 .
  5. ↑ a b c Contactless Girocard: Limit for payments without PIN increased to 50 euros. In: heise.de. March 30, 2020, accessed July 25, 2020 .
  6. ↑ NFC limit increased at DKB? In: Pay.de. Paysol GmbH & Co. KG, December 19, 2017, accessed on September 25, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Card numbers without PIN up to 50 euros on ORF from April 1, 2020 accessed on April 1, 2020
  8. ↑ These new rules apply to payments and online banking. Retrieved March 12, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Method for Card Holder Verification (CDCVM). In: Apple Support. Retrieved September 30, 2018 .
  10. ↑ CDCVM - Google Pay Merchant Help. Retrieved December 29, 2018 .
  11. ↑ a b Mobile payment: Aldi and Lidl now also accept contactless Girocard. In: Heise Online . February 27, 2017. Retrieved September 25, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Pay without PIN - researchers crack Visa's NFC payment function Report on the online platform Heise Online from August 28, 2020, accessed on August 28, 2020
  13. ↑ Beep and away - what you need to know about contactless payment. In: Finanztip . April 13, 2018. Retrieved September 25, 2018 .
  14. ↑ The contactless revolution ten years on. Visa Inc. , September 4, 2017, accessed September 25, 2018 .
  15. ↑ girocard - The most important answers - Simply understand money. In: Sparkasse.de. Sparkassen-Finanzportal GmbH, archived from the original on October 19, 2018 ; accessed on October 19, 2018 .
  16. ↑ Payment with Visa: contactless payment , accessed on October 2, 2018.
  17. ↑ MasterCard: In 2020 all of Europe should be able to make contactless payments , accessed on October 2, 2018.
  18. ^ The last bastion of cash under fire In: gfm-nachrichten.de, October 9, 2018, accessed on September 27, 2019.
  19. ↑ Contactless payment: security. Retrieved November 7, 2019 .