Consumers unengaged with contactless payment

by Gill Montia

Story link: Consumers unengaged with contactless payment

APACS, the body that represents UK firms involved in payment services, has reported a disappointing take-up of contactless payment among consumers.

This relatively new method of making purchases allows cardholders to pay for items of up to £10 by simply swiping their specially-enabled debit or credit cards against a retailer’s terminal.

Cardholders do not need to use a signature or pin, or even insert the card into a slot.

In trials, the cards have been shown to halve the time taken for a cash transaction and both consumers and retailers initially responded enthusiastically to the new system.

However figures from APACS show that in April, only 15,000 transactions were made at the 6,200 contactless terminals so far installed, giving a monthly average of three transactions per terminal.

High Street banks are apparently continuing their plans to issue a million cards by the end of the year.

The cards save money for banks, which are keen to bring an end to their costly cheque services, but research suggests that Britons are reluctant to let go of their cheque books, with the over-55s making the most use of this method of payment.

In addition, concerns have been raised that contactless payment technology could give rise to contactless pick-pocketing because the cards emit a signal that is picked up by an aerial in the contactless reader.

Readers supplied by legitimate manufacturers are limited to a four inch range, making it difficult for a criminal to pick up the signal and card details.

However, it is relatively straightforward to pick up signals at a greater range; this is done by increasing the radio frequency power of a card reader.

The adaptation enables a fraudster to collect card details from over two feet away.