Credit Card customers offered more convenience

Using NFC technology, credit card customers can swiftly make purchases on the go, reducing time spend in queues and speeding up the shopping process.

Near Field Communications (NFC) allows two devices to exchange data wirelessly within a short range. NFC sends high frequency within distances not exceeding 5 inches. NFC Payments allow customers to simply pay for a product by waving their credit card at the payment terminal.

Credit card companies world wide are embedding the technology into credit cards, as the device makes shopping much easier and convenient for customers; the ideal customer will make morning coffees, petrol, and fast food purchases with the NFC card. Once the cardholder has waived the card at the payment terminal, a beep will sound, alerting the customer of the completed transaction.

Commonwealth bank has recently introduced the NFC system their credit cardholders, because the card does not require the cardholder to enter a PIN or a signature for a purchase, a purchase limit of $100 is imposed on every individual purchase.

Paypass, Commonwealth’s NFC card is the first Australian bank to offer the technology on all of its debit and credit cards, and users can make the purchases at over 15,000 point of sale terminals throughout Australia.  Each card has a customized antenna built into each that transmits the data to the payment terminal.

The NFC payment is relatively secure as cardholders are not required to hand the card over to a clerk, or payment processor. Because the card must be waived within a very short distance of the payment terminal – The NFC card issued by Commonwealth bank requires the card to actually touch the reader, thus the chances of accidental payments are close to none, if the card is waived more than once, Commonwealth bank assures customers only one payment is processed.

National Australian Bank also used the same NFC technology in coordination with Telstra mobile phones, permitting customers to make purchases using their phones. The technology is widely used in Japan, and if the Paypass card is found to be beneficial to Australian customers, it will only be a matter of time before NFC phone payments become the norm Down Under.