Visa collaborates with Apple for contactless payments

Since contactless payments such as PayWave has not gained the popularity that Visa initially anticipated they are coming up with new ways to put contactless payments at the fingertips of users. 

Visa now allows users to use their iPhone to make payments.  The payment is facilitated by a modified MicroSD card with a near field communicator.  This system is called In2Pay.

The idea is to provide the consumer with the option to make payments without having to carry a credit card in a a wallet.  The customer keeps the chip in the iPhone case and taps it against the reader when they are ready to pay.  All the customer would need to carry is their cell phone case.

Once more phones use MicroSD Chips this will become more popular.

This is all in an effort to promote contactless payment which in my opinion will soon be the most popular means of payment.

Visa’s PayWave and MasterCard’s PayPass

In addition to the customer service advantages in the actual branches, many financial institutions are issuing cards with RFID chips backed by Visa and Mastercard for added convenience to the customers. Two such cards are the PayWave by Visa and the PayPass by MasterCard.

With MasterCard’s PayPass customers may use their RFID enabled card at retailers and stores where the PayPass logo is posted.  All they do is tap their card on the logo.  They then listen for a beep and a green light indicating that the payment was approved.  For purchases under fifty dollars no pin or signature is required.  This significantly reduces the time required for the customer to get rung up and they can be in and out of the store.

The concept with Visa’s PayWave is the same.  Instead of tapping their card the customer waves it at a reader.  With PayWave customers don’t have to sign for transactions under twenty-five dollars.

The benefits to the customer include faster checkout, no signature required, reduced risk of fraud as the customer remains in control of their card.

Halifax bank in London is one of the banks who has issued PayWave Visa debit cards.

Many customers have security issues with the use of these cards.  I anticipate that once there is a greater comfort level with RFID enabled cards that larger purchases will not require signatures and pins and RFID cards will ultimately replace the magnetic strip debit card all together.

How Yes Bank in India uses RFID to provide excellent customer service

Yes bank in India has adopted an RFID customer Identification program that allows them to provide personalized service to their wealthy customers.  The bank has distributed RFID cards to customers so that they may receive service without having to identify themselves.

When customers with such cards walk in to the branch the interrogator at the door reads the customers’ card which contains a unique identification number on the RFID chip.  The reader transmits the data to a back-end system.  Once the data is interpreted and the customer is identified a pop up appears on the screens of the relationship management team as well as the screen of the greeter. This pop up contains the customer’s name and picture.  In addition to the identification card the system also confirms the customer’s identity by comparison of a photo it takes of the customer at the door with the photo of the customer on file.

The relationship management team then has the option to select the customer’s data indication that they will be serving the customer.

The system that they are using was developed by SkandSoft Technologies.  Any bank taking advantage of a system such as this could greatly improve their customer service.  Customers, especially affluent ones expect bankers to know who they are.  This takes the pressure off of the customer service representative.  It may also give them a chance to peruse a customer profile and identify opportunities to offer services to the customer that may work in customer’s favor.

Introduction and Overview of RFID

The purpose of this blog is to explore the way in which RFID can be used to improve customer service in the banking industry now and in the future.

RFID is Radio Frequency Identification.  Wikipedia defines RFID as the use of an object typically referred to as an RFID tag applied to or incorporated into a product animal or person for the purpose of identification and tracking using radio waves. The concept of RFID is nothing new. While predecessors of RFID have bee around since 1945 the first true ancestor of modern RFID was invented in 1973 by Mario Cudullo. This device was a passive radio transponder with memory.

There are generally three types of RFID tags, active RFID tags which contain a battery and can transmit signals autonomously, passive ID tags which have no battery and require an external source to provoke signal transmission and battery assisted passive RFID tags, which require an external source to wake up but have significant higher forward link capability providing greater range.

One of the most common uses of RFID is in toll booths for electronic toll collection.  EZ Pass is an example of this.

In the next few post we will discuss how RFID technology can be used to improve customers; banking experience.