Contactless card / Paypass / Paywave

A contactless card is a bank card that does not need to be inserted into a reader or swiped across a reader. This plastic only needs to be brought close to a surface, and at a distance of a few centimeters, hip-hop, the financial transaction takes place.

Nowadays, we rarely see a situation where a bank card has to be inserted into a into a POS terminal or the magnetic strip of the bank card has to be pulled off somewhere. To pay, it is typically enough to touch the surface of the reader with the bank card or just bring the plastic close to it, and the transaction takes place. Such payments are made possible by contact cards. 

The operating principle of the contactless card is not complicated. This plastic does not contain a battery, it does not need to be charged, the magnetic field of the reader generates voltage in the small circuit of the card. The card's circuit transmits the signals required for identification to the reader, and the transaction takes place. This is called NFC technology. NFC technology is now widely used in all areas of life. 

When we talk about payment methods, the issue of security cannot be avoided. Concerns about touch cards are widespread, but the experience is not bad. The first problem is that the bank card can easily be photographed, say during a payment, with the camera placed at the cash register. In such cases, the person who took the photo gets possession of our name, our card number and the expiration date of the card, and in the worst case, even the PIN code. 

These data already enable online card payment on some internet shopping sites. These data can therefore be misused. To eliminate this, mandatory two-factor identification was introduced in webshops and other online payments. 

In addition, there is another code on the back of the cards. This is the CVC or CVV code, which is always the last three digits of the number line on the back. This is also requested for most online purchases, so if we didn't turn our card upside down when paying, when a photo was taken of it, then the person taking the photo cannot misuse the information. 

The second concern is unauthorized card reading. If someone can get close to, say, the card we carry in our back pocket with a scanning device on a crowded bus, the NFC module of our card activates and starts providing data about itself. Fortunately, this scanning device has to approach the given card within a few centimetres, which is difficult to do unobtrusively. 

The contactless card is a very practical asset, but nowadays many people still prefer to install their card on their phone. To do this, you need to buy a smartphone with NFC and download an application to the phone. The application learns the data of our card, and if we can touch the phone to the reader, the transaction takes place in the same way as with a bank card. This way you don't have to carry the card with you, there is no risk of losing or stealing the bank card. Almost all smartphone on the market today contain NFC.