How to Use Contactless Payments at the Point of Sale Terminals?

Coronavirus has brought a lot of misery to everyone in the world. It easily spreads through contact. How to prevent its spread is through maintaining social distance and eliminating contact with the surfaces. Almost every merchant in the US is now accepting contactless payments. It is the new norm and safest way to do a transaction maintaining social distance.

AppStar Financial facilitates a variety of contactless payment options at small merchants. Even Walmart has started accepting payments through contactless mode. The company offers several products/ services to promote health and improve safety for both customers and merchants.

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Payment Options

Appstar provides touchless payment processing on terminals like Google Pay NFC Technology and Apple Pay. The customer-facing PIN pads come with a 15 feet cable. Also, customers can use Bluetooth card readers to make payments. It eliminates the need for touch at the point of sale terminal. You may ask “Is it safe to conduct contactless transactions wirelessly”. Yes, absolutely. It is as safe as swiping your credit or debit card at a point-of-sale terminal.

Increase in Contactless Payments

Wireless Mobile payments are on the rise because of improved security, quick data processing, and enhanced customer-centric features. It makes a transition to a cashless economy from an economy driven by cash. It is the latest payment mode selected by several customers because of the fear of catching coronavirus when touching the finger pads at Point of sale terminals. Therefore, you can safely conduct wireless transactions at store checkouts.

NFC Working

The wireless communication technology – NFC (Near Field Communication) is introduced almost 2 decades ago. It utilizes radio frequency to transfer data between two NFC-enabled devices. It is two-way communication. The magnetic induction gets activated when two NFC-enabled devices are within two inches of distance. The chips need to be closer to exchanging data on the radio spectrum of 13.56 MHz. It transmits the data at a speed of 424 kbps.

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Transfer modes in NFC are Reader/Write mode, peer-to-peer, and card emulation mode. The reader/writer mode is used for contactless payments using Wi-Fi-enabled credit or debit cards. You need to just keep your credit or debit card close to the reader at a merchant outlet to pay for the products or services. Mobile payment apps use the card emulation mode. It just works as a virtual debit or credit card. The peer-to-peer mode is used for exchanging files between two devices wirelessly.

The customer needs to wave an NFC-enabled credit or debit card at a contactless and NFC-enabled card reader at a point-of-sale terminal. Popular contactless debit and credit cards in the market are Amex, MasterCard, and Visa. You can also make use of Mobile Apps such as Samsung, Google, and Apple Pay to make contactless payments. You can approach AppStar Financial for all of your contactless payment options.

Making Payments at Store Outlets Using A Mobile App

You need to just open the NFC EPA (NFC-enabled payment app) on your mobile phone and select the payment method. You just need to wave or tap your mobile phone on top of the NFC-enabled POT (Point of sale terminal) to make the payment. You need to just keep your NFC-enabled credit or debit card over the NFC-enabled POT to complete the payment at a store outlet.

The credit card information is not transmitted in NFC payment modes. Only tokens are transmitted at POT. It cannot be reused by the merchant. Therefore, your credit or debit card information is secure. You can confidently use contactless payment options at store outlets.