3 Ways to Keep Your Distance With Contactless Payments

Touchless methods are convenient and secure, but the hygiene factor in the pandemic era could get more people on board.
Gregory Karp
By Gregory Karp 
Updated
Edited by Erica Corbin

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If you’re looking for a self-improvement task in this pandemic era, try teaching yourself to use touchless payments with your phone or “tap-to-pay” credit and debit cards.

Any germaphobe will tell you that the surfaces of bills and coins have always been gross. And handing your credit card to a cashier who has the sniffles and a hacking cough? Even in pre-pandemic times, also gross. Because of COVID-19, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now advises using touchless payments, like a contactless credit card, when possible in the brick-and-mortar world.

Americans have been relatively slow to adopt touchless payments even though they’re more convenient and secure than swiping credit and debit cards. But maybe hygiene will be the tipping point as people seek a solution for, well, yucky money.

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Moving toward contactless

"I think the pandemic is a strong impetus to change," said Jodie Kelley, CEO of the Electronic Transactions Association. "I think it’s going to stick and accelerate further. As people get used to it and understand how to do it and find that it’s simple and convenient, then they’re not going to shift back."

Consumer interest in contactless payments has spiked during the pandemic.

During the first months of the pandemic, no-touch payments increased at 69% of retailers surveyed by the research firm Forrester on behalf of the National Retail Federation. At that time, two-thirds of retailers surveyed accepted some form of no-touch payment.

Learning to use contactless payments might be awkward at first, and some of your favorite retailers might not be equipped to accept them. The point is to give it a shot the next time you’re not in a rush in a checkout line that can handle contactless payments.

"The first time I went to pay with my phone, I didn’t quite know how to do it," Kelley said. "I felt a little silly trying to figure it out. But once I figured it out, I loved it."

Here are three ways to experiment with touchless payments and avoid dirty currency and much-touched payment terminals.

1. Tap to pay

Wells Fargo Active Cash Card

Note the waves near the silver chip. Image courtesy of Wells Fargo

True, the word "tap" doesn’t exactly scream contactless. But "tap to pay" credit and debit cards really only need to be within a couple of inches of the payment terminal. That's because the contactless cards have little antennas inside.

Want to know if your payment card has contactless capability? It will have a logo that looks like a sideways Wi-Fi symbol of radiating waves. Retail payment terminals that accept contactless payments have the same symbol.

These cards don’t require a smartphone to complete the payment, and you don’t have to use a PIN. Nine of the top 10 U.S. credit card issuers are actively distributing new contactless credit and debit cards to customers, Visa has said.

"For people who are not used to engaging with technology, I would say first look at your card, see if it has the symbol. And if it does, the next time you’re at a retail location, all you have to do is touch that card to the terminal," Kelley said. "It is incredibly straightforward. I encourage people to try it."

2. Smartphone payments

Phone payments require a little prep work before you get to the checkout counter. First, you must enter your payment card information into your mobile wallet app. Then, the card is saved and available to use. The most popular digital wallet services are Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay.

To pay during checkout, open your wallet app and hold your phone near the terminal, and your phone will ask for authentication. That’s the normal unlocking procedure with your phone, whether tapping in a numeric code, using thumbprint or face identification. Many smartwatches work, too, as long as they have the required technology, called NFC, or near-field communication.

When successful, the terminal will confirm your payment was received.

3. Touchless pay at the pump

Many retailers have mobile apps that let you pay on your phone and bypass in-person payment completely. In those cases, you typically would get items delivered or visit the store for curbside or in-store pickup.

Another way to use a retail app is at major gas station chains. The apps (download them at your phone’s app store) let you identify which pump number you’re at, then authorize you to use it. You fill your tank, and the charge goes to whatever payment method you identified in the gas-station app.

Just be sure to clean your hands after using the pump nozzle.

Is it secure?

As you beam your next payment to a retailer’s checkout terminal, you might wonder, "Will I have my credit card number stolen?"

The nontechnical answer is that it’s safer than the old method of swiping your card. That’s because the card or phone sends encrypted payment information to the terminal, essentially masking your real credit card number. Even if the payment information was intercepted, it would be useless to a thief.

"It’s an incredibly safe way to pay," Kelley said.

These days, in more ways than one.

What’s next?

A version of this article was written by NerdWallet and was originally published by The Associated Press.

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