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Contactless payment cards explained Future innovation

Barclays Hand Reader

Mastercard's PayPass will be supported by several banks

Mastercard’s PayPass and Maestro PayPass enable people to buy things for under £10 simply by touching their card against a reader.

Cardholders with participating banks will automatically receive a PayPass-enabled credit or debit card when their old card expires.

Banks that have announced their intention to issue contactless cards include Bank of Scotland, Barclaycard, Citi, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds TSB and Royal Bank of Scotland.

To guard against fraud, users will occasionally have to input their PIN.

Other Visa payWave cards will be issued by other banks.

Pay for cabs

Barclays are also working with Computer Cab on a wave and pay system where passengers can pay a fare by pressing their credit or debit card against a reader.

Soon mobile handsets will come with Near Field Communications (NFC) devices that can be used for contactless payments.

NFC cards or phones can be stocked up with credit and then used as payment.

In Japan mobile phones called ‘o-saifu keitei’, literally ‘mobile wallets’ have been launched. The user simply waves their phone over the reader and the payment is debited or credited to their account – larger payments require authorisation. In the event of theft, the phone can be instantly locked.

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