Take advantage of increased speed and convenience with contactless payments - a great way to make transactions of up to $2501 faster and more convenient than cash.
Wave through more customers every day.
Contactless Payments
Put your business in the fast lane with contactless payments
With contactless payments, customers simply hold their Visa contactless card or mobile device over a secure payment terminal at check-out and the transaction is completed in as little as 0.5 seconds - 7x faster than traditional Chip & PIN transactions.2
With no signature to check or PIN to enter for purchases under $250 – and cardholder receipt optional – expect faster transactions, shorter lines and happier customers.
Contactless payments are ideal for merchants with high volumes of customers where speed of service is essential – in particular, quick-service restaurants, coffee shops, movie theatres, convenience stores, gas stations, grocery stores, pharmacies, newsstands and more.
How it works
Contactless payment technology lets users pay with just a wave of their card or device.
Contactless payment cards are embedded with an antenna and a microchip. The chip, via the antenna, is able to communicate with the secure contactless reader.
Similarly, contactless payment-enabled mobile devices combine built-in near field communication ("NFC") technology with a special payment application, to facilitate the same kind of communication with your reader.
Rather than inserting a card or having you swipe it, customers hold their contactless payment-enabled card, or mobile device, over a secure payment terminal. The customer maintains control of the card, or mobile device, for the entire payment process.
Simply follow the prompts and the secure payment terminal will indicate when the transaction has been processed. Receipts are not necessary unless requested by the customer.
How to accept Contactless Payments
There are two ways to start accepting contactless transactions:
• Install integrated terminals that include the Visa-enabled reader.
• Add a peripheral Visa-enabled reader to your existing POS terminal.
Benefits
Faster and more convenient electronic payments.
Cost savings from faster checkouts
Faster lines translate to efficiency and cost savings, while less cash handling helps reduce the costs of cash management and slippage.
Trusted Visa security
Visa contactless payments are built with the same stringent standards that secure all Visa payment solutions. Contactless payments leverage the security benefits of chip card technology, providing you and your customers with a secure contactless payment solution.
Visa contactless payments uses dynamic data authentication (DDA) to ensure that only a valid contactless payment-enabled card or mobile device can be accepted at certified payment terminals.
Q + A
Want to know more? Select any of the questions below for more detail.
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Contactless payments use short-range wireless technology to securely complete payments between a contactless card or payment-enabled device and a contactless-enabled checkout terminal. A contactless Visa card is a chip card that has a near-field communication (NFC) antenna which enables close-range payments. When you tap your contactless Visa card or payment-enabled device at the contactless-enabled checkout terminal (near the Contactless Symbol), your payment is sent for authorization.
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Contactless payments will help support future advances in mobile-based payments. Your customers won't need to fumble for cash and coins, which can increase checkout speed and reduce lines. Additionally, most transactions under $250 at participating merchants do not require a PIN, speeding up the payment process.
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Yes. Your contactless card or payment-enabled device is safe for a number of reasons: Just like with a chip card, each transaction is accompanied by a unique one-time code that securely encrypts your payment information. Contactless payments are based on international EMV chip security standards and the most advanced and widely adopted cryptographic security. You can’t pay accidentally – your card or device must be within 1-2 inches of the terminal for the transaction to occur (and you won’t be billed twice, even if you accidentally tap twice).
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Your customers are protected by Visa’s Zero Liability Policy, as outlined below.
Use your Visa card to make purchases anywhere and you're protected from unauthorized use of your card or account information. With the Visa Zero Liability policy1, your liability for unauthorized transactions2 is $0-you pay nothing.
1 Visa's Zero Liability Policy covers Canada-issued cards and does not apply to anonymous Visa Prepaid*, Visa Purchasing, Visa Corporate, Visa Commercial, or any transactions not processed by Visa. Visa Cardholders must notify their financial institution immediately of any unauthorized use. For specific restrictions, limitations and other details, please refer to your issuer cardholder documentation.
*A Visa Prepaid Card will be considered anonymous if the cardholder's identity has not been validated by the issuing financial institution (for example, a Visa Prepaid Gift Card).
2 Financial institutions may exclude from the Zero Liability policy a transaction made by a person authorized to transact business on the account and/or a transaction made by a cardholder that exceeds the authority given by the account owner.
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Your contactless card or payment-enabled device needs to be waved within an inch of the secure reader and correctly oriented in order to be read. Only the secure readers at authorized merchants can process the information on contactless cards or payment enabled devices
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Yes. Visa, MasterCard and American Express will all offer solutions that support the same standard for Radio Frequency (RF) cards-ISO 14443 A/B. Note that full specifications will differ across payment brands. To learn more about contactless payment specifications please contact your Account Executive or your acquirer
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To deploy peripheral contactless readers (PCRs) that plug into your existing conventional POS terminals, the payment application in your existing terminal must be modified to interface with the PCR. To learn more about speciality terminals, contact your Account Executive or acquirer.
1 Use of increased limit (from $50 to $250) is subject to implementation by merchant/acquirer
2 Market Timing Study September 2012: Visa payWave transactions without receipt are on average 7x faster than typical Chip & PIN transactions with receipt.