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                                                                                   to 33 percent of those with payment-
          Insider’sreport                                                          enabled smartphones. And some big
                                                                                   players are betting use of contactless
             on payments                                                           payments will increase. Visa and Mas-
                                                                                   tercard are among the biggest bettors.
        Are stars aligning for                                                     Both card brands have mandated that
                                                                                   new POS terminal deployments in
        contactless payments?                                                      the United States support contact-
                                                                                   less by mid-2020. At least three of the
                                                                                   largest card-issuing banks – Bank
        By Patti Murphy                                                            of America, Chase and Wells Fargo
                                                                                   –  have  plans  to  migrate their  credit
        ProScribes Inc.                                                            and debit card portfolios to contact-
                                                                                   less cards. Chase has already issued
              'm old school: I like using plastic credit or debit cards. The idea of tap-  close to 20 million contactless cards,
              ping a smartphone against a POS device to execute payments just doesn't   according to Abeer Bhatia, president
              do it for me. One reason, I suspect, is that I'm not very competent at using   of card marketing, pricing and inno-
        I a smartphone. I can make calls, take photos, exchange text messages and   vation at Chase.
        even deposit checks using a mobile device, but not much else.
                                                                                   Visa said upward of 100 million Visa-
        I am open to change, however. Ten years ago I never could have imagined    branded contactless credit and debit
        migrating all of my photo taking or check depositing to smartphone technology.   cards will be in Americans' wallets
        Nor would I have considered using a contactless chip card to initiate payments,   by year end 2019; 300 million by year-
        but these days I'm considering it.                                         end 2020. In a May blog post on Visa'
                                                                                   website, Dan Sanford, global head of
        A recent survey by Auriemma Research found that 59 percent of contactless   contactless payments, stated that 80
        card holders have used those cards to make tap-and-go payments, compared   of  the top 100 U.S.  Visa  merchants
                                                                                   (in terms of transactions) now offer
                                                                                   consumers the ability to tap and pay
                                                                                   at checkout. He predicted that others
                                                                                   will follow, and along with that so
                                                                                   will consumer adoption.

                                                                                   "As more people get a chance to ex-
                                                                                   perience contactless payments as
                                                                                   part of their daily routines, tapping
                                                                                   to pay will become second nature for
                                                                                   convenience-driven consumers ev-
                                                                                   erywhere," Sanford wrote.

                                                                                   Is mass transit the ticket?
                                                                                   Contactless cards (and mobile pay-
                                                                                   ment apps) use near field communi-
                                                                                   cation (NFC) technology to support
                                                                                   the payment initiation process. Con-
                                                                                   sumers tap their cards or mobile de-
                                                                                   vices against a POS device that's been
                                                                                   programmed for NFC functionality
                                                                                   to activate the process.

                                                                                   There's a big push toward contact-
                                                                                   less credit and debit card usage in
                                                                                   mass transit. In late May, mass transit
                                                                                   customers in New York City got the
                                                                                   option of using Chase-issued contact-
                                                                                   less cards to pay for entry to several
                                                                                   subway stations and bus lines in lieu
                                                                                   of using fare cards. Over time, all
                                                                                   New York City subway stations and

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