From waterslide to contactless credit card payments

The one thing about technology I love is that even the wildest predictions can come true. Back in 2008, Barclay showed this TV advert which had people chatting about the future of the traditional credit card:

Fast forward to 2015, and in South Africa, banks are starting to roll out Tap-and-go contactless card payments.

At a recent FNB discussion, Chris Labuschagne, CEO of FNB Credit Card division has announced an initial pilot run where Engen customers are able to use their tap-and-go credit cards to pay for their fuel.

Currently, any amount under R200 will not require any further verification and the customer can just tap their FB credit card and the transaction will be processed. Any amount over the R200 limit will require the customer to enter their PIN.

Of course the problem comes in where a credit card is stolen. As no verification is required except for the tap on the point of sale terminal, this could mean that small amounts of money could be spent on your credit card. However, FNB is currently educating their customers to instantly report lost or stolen credit cards so that they can protect their funds. FNB has confirmed that if the customer was not negligent (such as writing PIN numbers on back of the card or screaming the PIN to the attendant), then the funds are protected.

FNB’s technology allows the bank to understand your spending habits. This means that should a transaction fall outside what is considered normal behavior, the system will automatically flag those transactions as suspicious. So while we worry about Big Data and the information we leave behind, this is one case where we are glad that Big Brother is looking out for us.

FNB reminds customers that when shopping online to ensure that the site has the HTTPS in the URL, has the closed padlock symbol showing its a secure site, pay using the credit card as the funds are protected from fraud in case the site is not legit. Everyone should also have an up-to-date anti-virus system which today also includes methods to protect the shopper when using internet banking sites and popular online shopping sites too.

Today’s bank robbers are not armed with a shot guns and a masks, but are armed with laptops and malware as their weapons. As more people see the benefit of ecommerce and transacting online, banks have to step up their security in order to protect both the customer and the merchant.

The cat and mouse game of security versus conveniences continues.

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*headline image from Shutterstock.com