Contactless Mobile Payments

Near Field Communications (NFC) has the ability to revolutionise the way we facilitate payment and provide loyalty and ticketing cards to our customers in the future.

Contactless mobile payments is the first Australian mobile application of NFC, which has seen NAB Visa credit card details securely loaded onto a Telstra SIM. For consumers, making a purchase can be as simple as holding their mobile against a reader in a shop, then the payment is automatically loaded onto their NAB Visa credit card account. This technology enables faster and easier payments, which means less time at the checkout. Contactless Mobile Payments are already being used and trialled overseas as part of the GSM Association (GSMA) initiative. As part of this, Telstra, in partnership with NAB and Visa, have conducted a proof of concept trial in Melbourne.

Read the Finextra "Innovation Showcase" article 

There are many benefits to Near Field Communications (NFC). Here are some of the main ones.

• For businesses issuing magnetic stripe plastic cards, it can reduce your issuing costs and turnaround time.
• For consumers, making a purchase can take less time. Simply swipe and go!
• Mobile phones replace cards – so there’s no need to carry plastic
• Lost or stolen cards have traditionally caused a lot of inconvenience with card cancellations and waiting for new cards to arrive.
• With Contactless Mobiles, cancelling cards can be done over the air (OTA) and then reissued OTA.
• For merchants, this technology could enhance the customer experience through reduced waiting time and speed at checkout.

For the purposes of this trial, we are using SAGEM my700x mobile phones embedded with NFC capability, plus a single wire protocol SIM to securely store card data in a separate security domain. All data is sent over the air, with no preloading necessary.

The proof of concept trial which consists of approx 250 participants will encourage the use of Contactless Mobile Payments to make purchases under the value of $35 around the Docklands area. The participant's mobile phone will be fitted with Contactless Near Field Communications (NFC) technology and the SIM loaded with a NAB Visa card application.

This exciting Australia-first trial encourages participants to explore the world without a wallet or purse. NFC technology could potentially replace all plastic cards, including loyalty, ticketing and credit cards.

To discuss how NFC can help change your business’s magnetic stripe card issuance programs, please contact your Account Executive.