NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – While the Covid-19 virus outbreak is building awareness for contactless and NFC payments and is accelerating the increase in already low contactless transaction limits in Europe, it remains to be seen how much it will convince more merchants to accept contactless in the U.S.
Going cashless, especially with contactless cards and NFC devices, is getting a boost because of fears that surfaces that consumers routinely touch while at the retail checkout, such as counters, POS terminals, even notes and coins, could harbor the virus for several hours or even up to a few days. While there has been little testing to confirm that, the fears have led several European countries in recent weeks to push through increases in contactless transaction limits, which many of them had already been considering. These limits have trailed contactless limits in markets in Asia and North America for years.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., where use of contactless is much lower than in Europe, it’s too early to say whether the virus will encourage more people to tap to pay or if it will cause more merchants to support the technology.
