Retailers Sign Up For Contactless Credit Cards

15th August 2007

More than 1,000 London retail outlets have signed up for the new contactless payment system being introduced in London this autumn by MasterCard and Visa. Contactless payment will be available for credit card transactions of £10 or under, where customers will simply hold their upgraded card up to a secure reader to make their payment in participating retailers.

Retailers that have signed up include food and drink outlets such as Threshers, Yo Sushi!, Eat, Krispy Kreme donuts and Coffee Republic. Also signed up are Books Etc and the Science Museum. The new system aims to speed up payments and reduce queues.

To use the new contactless technology, a customer needs to hold their credit card up to the contactless card reader. Making a contactless payment will not routinely require a PIN to be entered, but the chip on your credit card will track activity and as a security feature will request a PIN on occasion. Each time a PIN is used it confirms that the cardholder is in possession of their card.

Both Mastercard and Visa are expected to launch marketing campaigns to support the new cards and systems over the coming months. The system launches in London this autumn before being rolled out across the country from 2008.