It is hard not to get just a little overly excited over NFC, otherwise known as Near Field Communication. After all, you were probably writing checks at your local grocer not so many years ago. So, the thought of being able to pay for something by waving your smartphone in front of a receiver is pretty crazy, right?
Most people cannot even imagine not carrying their credit cards, bus or subway ticket or the loyalty card to their favorite morning coffee joint, but this is the direction technology is headed.
How it Works
In a nutshell, all NFC does is use radio-frequency identifications to identify you and your bank account. This allows funds to be transferred between devices simply by being held just a few centimeters apart.
What is unique is that a pairing code is not needed. Tapping your smartphone on a contactless payment terminal allows that café, train station or store to identify you and receive a payment through your phone. This opens up a world of convenience and opportunity. In fact, some believe that NFC could eventually eliminate the need for carrying a passport.
U.S Bank Testing
U.S. Bank has recently announced that they will be launching a “Go Mobile” app trial in Portland and Salt Lake City. This is one of America’s largest and most trusted banks, and they will be allowing point-of-sale purchases to be made by waving an iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S in front of the reader at checkout.
U.S Bank Go Mobile is easy-to-use and guaranteed secure by passcode protection, bank-grade encryption, zero fraud liability, real-time fraud monitoring and strong privacy protection.
Google Wallet
Google Wallet allows you to store your credit and debit card information on Google’s highly secured servers. Then, you always have them handy to use on your computer or phone. Plus, you can tap your phone directly to an NFC terminal and use whichever payment method in your virtual wallet that you choose. Although many people don’t realize it, you can use your Google Wallet app in store at more than 140,000 merchants in the United States. Just a few of these include popular favorites, such as Old Navy, American Eagle, Footlocker, Office Max, CVS and Sunoco.
Interactive Business Cards
Business cards will always be an essential business tool, and now you can do a lot more with them. Moo.com allows you to order NFC business cards from them, in which you have the power to specify exactly what you want the tag to do. It could simply provide contact information or a special discount, or it could do something as extravagant as play a video.
Although the cards will be costly, you will have the ability to customize the card by reprogramming the NFC chip. Could this be the end of traditional business cards? One thing is for certain; the reduced number of receipts, public transportation tickets and now business cards make NFC a very desirable option for environmental enthusiasts concerned about the mass amount of paper wasted on printing these products.
Author Bio: This article was written by the gang at Merchant Warehouse. For more on mobile payments, please visit us online.
Contact me with any questions: Andrew – [email protected]
