There are countless situations in which it is more convenient not to have to carry your wallet with you: this can be sports, attending concerts, festivals or even traveling. In these cases, paying with mobile devices can be a quick and obvious solution, which is possible almost anywhere in Hungary, since 95 percent of card terminals support contactless payment, according to the Mastercard from its announcement.
The company emphasized: although more and more people are using this payment method, there are still many people who prefer a physical bank card.
“The ratio of the number of bank card transactions initiated from mobile wallets in the physical environment compared to the total number of transactions has increased by more than 10 percentage points in the last two years, and according to Mastercard’s estimate, every third card transaction in the physical environment is made with a mobile wallet”
he told Portfolio László SzetnicsMastercard’s Regional Business Development Director.
The specialist highlighted: Hungary is at the forefront of mobile phone payments at the regional level, Apple Pay and Google Pay have been introduced at almost all issuers, and Garmin Pay and Xiaomi Pay are also available at many of them. In terms of other smart devices, we are in the middle range, but smart watches and activity trackers also have a visible market share.
The so-called passive portable smart devices (Passive Wearables), which are less popular but available in most regional countries, are not yet available in our country. These devices work like a contactless bank card, they are only suitable for touch payments, they do not have a battery, display, bluetooth or network connection.
“In practice, only the manufacturers’ imagination can set a limit to what kind of, even completely ordinary, objects they can equip with the possibility of paying with them. Interesting examples of this are plush bears and pens suitable for payment, but a watch strap designed for everyday analog watches, with which you can also pay, can be significantly more practical. For the future, an important question is what business use manufacturers will find for the already existing technology”, detailed László Szetnics.
The basket value of mobile wallet transactions has not changed significantly in recent years, most people still use it for smaller purchases, however generational differences can be found among users.
Mastercard’s research shows that compared to contactless payment with a card, the mobile wallet is the most popular among the 18-29 age group, they consider both payment methods equally convenient. However, the older 30-49 and 50-69 age groups are still in favor of cards: they consider physical cards more convenient and safer when paying with smart devices.
The mobile wallet is safe and reliable
However, according to László Szentics, the assumption about security is a common misconception, because the most popular mobile wallets (such as Apple Pay and Google Pay) work with a unique code, a so-called token, which helps prevent data theft.
In practice, this means that during a mobile wallet purchase, the user’s payment data (e.g. bank card number) is replaced by a token, so the real card data is not transferred or stored by the seller.
“This replacement token only works in the given device, so if it were to fall into the hands of an unauthorized person, it would not be possible to start a transaction with this data. On the other hand, the theft of a traditional, physical card number can expose the cardholder to a significant financial risk,” the expert concluded.
Another frequently asked question is what if our mobile device does not have an internet connection. However, this is not an obstacle for mobile wallet payments either, you don’t actually need the internet.
This is because the authentication data used for transactions is managed by the encrypted security elements stored on the phone. Smart devices do not connect to the terminal via the Internet, but via NFC (Near Field Communication) technology, which then communicates with the card acceptance network.
The article was published by Mastercard supported it.
The cover image is an illustration. Cover image source: Getty Images
Source: www.portfolio.hu
