DITCH YOUR WALLET

Step into the wild world of cashless transactions.

South African consumers are increasingly demanding more secure and convenient ways to make payments, while merchants require similar security and efficiency when processing them. This is where cashless payments, whether through cards or mobile devices, can help meet these needs.

This is according to Mastercard South Africa, which plans to make ‘tap and go’ payments a standard in the next five years. The company is set to implement a series of card and terminal upgrades globally, including the African continent, where its contactless cards are already available. Terminal upgrades are expected to be ready by October 2018, and all new cards issued from April 2019 will have contactless technology enabled.

‘ Tap and go’ cards have a specific chip embedded in them that uses NFC technology for contactless payments, whereby the card is simply tapped against a supported payment terminal. These debit or credit cards are already in circulation, identifiable through the wireless symbol, and have been issued by banks including FNB, Nedbank, Absa and Standard Bank, and are supported by both Visa and Mastercard. FNB started issuing contactless credit cards as early as February 2015.

Most consumers are unaware of their debit- or credit- card capabilities, and in some cases, cashiers are not briefed on the technology supported by the sales systems typically found at supermarkets such as Pick n Pay, or garages such as Engen and Shell. If your card has a wireless symbol and the machine you are about to make a payment has the same symbol, you should be able to complete your transaction seamlessly with a tap.

Safety becomes a main concern, as anyone could tap a stolen card and make unlimited purchases, but the system is aimed at making smaller purchases, limited to roughly five consecutive swipes. While contactless payments may be supported for small purchases up to R1 000, a PIN number or signature will be required for those amounts greater than R200. The exact amounts and number of swipes before a PIN is required varies depending on the cardholder’s bank.

A new, but long-awaited form of contactless payment recently became available in SA through mobile giant Samsung, beating out its rival Apple. The Samsung Pay mobile-payment and digital-wallet systems, first introduced in 2015, became available locally at the end of July through a public beta trial.

Absa customers were among the first to get access to the system as a launch partner, with Standard Bank following thereafter. Samsung Pay supports both Mastercard and Visa, but for Samsung customers to sign up for the service, there are certain criteria that need to be met. These include supported devices (Galaxy S7 and up, Note 8 and up, and selected A-series devices) and other credit cards such as Virgin Money, Avios, and British Airways. Samsung says its payment system will work on most payment terminals in South Africa, with a 97 per cent acceptance rate from the trial period.

While cash will for now remain king on the African continent, there are many cashless-payment options currently available through mobile apps on Android and IOS, such as Zapper, Snapscan, Masterpass, and Starbucks. Meanwhile, we eagerly await the arrival of Apple Pay on our shores.