“Visa and payments hardware specialist Planeta Informatica have come up with an easy way to add contactless payments at public transit turnstiles. The Visa Secure Access Module (SAM) allows transit operators to offer riders the ability to tap to pay with a contactless card, phone or wearable device without the expense of replacing current turnstiles or terminal hardware.”

“So far, Visa Inc. has dominated the headlines regarding the U.S. conversion to contactless payment cards. Mastercard Inc., however, will soon be getting into the act. “In the U.S., contactless momentum continues to grow on both issuing and acceptance sides,” Mastercard president and chief executive Ajay Banga said Thursday. “We have received commitments from issuers representing approximately two-thirds of our total U.S. consumer volume to issue contactless cards within the next two years.””

“Garmin Pay runs on FitPay technology from Nxt-ID Inc.’s Fit Pay Inc. subsidiary, including near-field communication for contactless transactions. General-purpose mobile wallets for smart phones such as Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay also use NFC. Most U.S. merchant locations now have the capability to accept NFC at the point-of-sale, though many merchants haven’t yet activated the feature.”

“Discover^® and Garmin^® International, Inc., today announced that Discover cardmembers can now make payments using Garmin Pay^TM, a contactless payment solution for people on the move. Garmin Pay, which is powered by FitPay^®, is available on Garmin’s latest active lifestyle smartwatches, the vívoactive^® 3 series, and new GPS running watches, the Forerunner^® 645, Forerunner 645 Music and fēnix^® 5 Plus series, as well as the D2™ Delta aviator watch series. Those who add their Discover card to Garmin’s virtual wallet can make quick and easy purchases using just their watch.”

“Commerce Bank’s Visa debit and reloadable prepaid cards now feature contactless payment capability. Contactless payments use short-range wireless technology to quickly complete payments between a contactless-enabled card or payment-enabled device and a contactless-enabled checkout terminal. It takes as little as 1/2 a second to make a payment and a quicker checkout experience that’s as easy as looking for the contactless symbol on the terminal, waiting for the prompt and then placing the card on the terminal near the symbol.”

“Churches have reported a 97% increase in donations made at services trialling a digital collection box. A partnership between technology firm SumUp and the Church of England meant the parishioners could make contactless payments using a portable device. Churchgoers picked a sum from four options decided by the Church, before using a card or smartphone to pay.”

“The Montreal-based start-up offers contactless payment acceptance on smart devices, without the need for external hardware. It says its “bring-your-own-device technology” provides an alternative to traditional point-of-sale offerings. Earlier this year, Mobeewave signed a partnership agreement with Samsung Electronics making the Canadian firm’s platform available for commercial use on more than 250 million Samsung devices around the world.”

“PenFed Credit Union announced Tuesday it will begin issuing contactless Visa-branded credit and debit cards this month. The move comes after a decision by Chase, a unit of JPMorgan Chase & Co., to issue dual-interface cards that will be in force this year. The cards are called dual interface because they can be dipped into or tapped against a point-of-sale terminal. In November, Chase began issuing contactless cards for its Chase Freedom Unlimited and Chase Slate cards, with plans to expand to other Chase Visa credit cards and eventually its debit cards later this year.”

“While Apple Pay is slowly gaining widespread adoption from retailers everywhere, one notable holdout has been Target. According to a handful of shoppers at a Target store in San Francisco, however, the retailer could be testing Apple Pay support at its physical locations.”

“With cash no longer king, and electronic payments on the rise, there is less and less of the spare change that homeless people and many charities rely on around. But the Big Issue has announced plans to embrace the technological change, and hopefully boost its homeless vendors’ income, by issuing them with card readers. Instead of digging at the bottom of their pockets for notes and coins, potential purchasers will be able to just tap to pay for their magazine.”

“The UK’s love of takeaway coffee is causing a huge waste problem, with less than 1 percent of disposable coffee cups being recycled. But Costa thinks it has a solution that will not only get you your daily caffeine hit faster but also help you do your bit to save the planet. The soon-to-be Coca-Cola subsidiary is launching a reusable cup with its own detachable contactless chip powered by Barclaycard‘s payment tech.”

“Chase, the consumer banking arm of JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM, -1.50%  announced Wednesday that it would be sending out contactless Visa Inc. V, +0.45% credit cards beginning in the first half of 2019. The company will roll out tap-enabled cards on an ongoing basis when customers open up new accounts or have a card that’s up for renewal. Chase will launch contactless debit cards starting in the second half of 2019.”

“Mastercard, Garmin International, Inc., and Fit Pay, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of NXT-ID, Inc. (NASDAQ: NXTD), today announced that the Garmin Pay™ contactless payment feature will be available for Maestro cards issued by major banks in Europe, including KBC Bank and Insurance (including CBC and KBC Brussels) in Belgium, Rabobank and ABN AMRO in Netherlands and BNL Gruppo BNP Paribas in Italy.”

“If so, contactless cards would represent nearly 12% of Visa’s U.S. card base of 856 million as of June 30, the latest figures available. That figure includes 521 million debit cards and 335 million credit cards.”

“It’s no secret contactless payments have struggled in the United States, but less discussed is what needs to be done to boost usage. A paucity of dual-interface cards—EMV plastic that can either be inserted into terminals or tapped on them—is much to blame, but it turns out the answer goes well beyond that gap. It lies also in a lot of basic blocking and tackling at the point of sale, a panel of expert speakers said Thursday at a payments-industry conference.”

“Visa says 50% of its face-to-face transactions happened at contactless-enabled merchant locations as of June, meaning the merchant’s point-of-sale equipment was enabled, and not just capable, of conducting a contactless card payment. Unlike mobile payments, in which consumers use smart phones to make tap-and-go payments with digital versions of cards, contactless credit and debit card payments are generally characterized as those made with a plastic card.”