With this new feature, it will now be possible to pay for purchases without inserting your credit card, whatever the amount.
Take the test at the supermarket, at the bakery, or even in a clothing store: very few customers persist in inserting their credit card into the payment terminal. Faster, more practical, “contactless” payment has become widespread in France thanks to the health crisis. And it could take a new leap forward thanks to the arrival of a new feature, the «contactless more».
Due to the risk of fraud, the limit for contactless payments is relatively low. Long limited to 30 euros, it was increased to 50 euros in May 2020. Beyond that, it is necessary to enter the PIN code of the credit card in question to validate the transaction. With the “contactless plus”rolled out in France for a few days, buyers can now pay for their purchases over 50 euros without inserting their card. But they will still have to enter their code.
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The credit card in competition with mobile payment
On its website, Société Générale, which echoes this new functionality, speaks of a solution “more secure” et “more fluid” than traditional contactless. She encourages her professional clients to adopt it but recalls that the transition to “contactless plus” requires the payment terminals to be updated, as this is not automatic. It will therefore be necessary to wait a little while before all merchants are able to offer this new feature.
It remains to be seen whether this novelty will really be one. For customers, the contribution of «contactless more» looks thin. Because it is very often the composition, sometimes hazardous, of the PIN code which pushes buyers to opt for the «sans contact». However, with the «contactless more», this step becomes essential again. It is difficult to see how it could compete with payment by mobile transactions such as Apple Pay, which is unlimited in amount and does not require a PIN code. In 2022, this 2.0 payment jumped by 137%, after recording an initial three-digit increase the previous year. It now represents nearly 6% of electronic payments.
