With the rising number of consumers using or interested in using mobile wallet payment systems (Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, etc.), businesses need to educate themselves on the ins and outs of this increasingly popular type of payment. Businesses who wish to offer the best mobile credit card processing will want to accept the best types of transaction technology. One question that immediately presents itself is security. Is it really safer to use your mobile phone to pay, or does it expose you to additional risks?
The short answer is Mobile wallets are in fact more secure from possible fraud. Compared to physical payment card transactions, there’s a better variety of security measures at play with most mobile wallets, meaning your financial information is at an even greater remove from bad actors. For most apps, there are two main types of security at play:
The apps you use take the security of your financial information seriously. That’s why every time you pay for something, the app takes your connected credit card information and creates a randomly generated string of numbers: the token. Instead of handing over your real credit card information, the merchant is given the token. Because of this, a number of types of fraud are virtually eliminated, such as the credit card info being skimmed. In essence, your payment info is secure from fraud that targets merchants because the info isn’t there to steal.
But what about fraud that could take place on the consumer side of the transaction? The biometric security measures in place for most apps greatly reduce the possibility of this type of fraud. If someone picks up your debit or credit card, they are close to being able to use it; for some vendors, they need only sign. With mobile wallets, there’s a lot more going against the potential fraudster. If they picked up your mobile phone, they need to unlock it; then there are the biometric security features. Either a fingerprint, retina scan, or face scan is needed, and that is all but impossible to fake.
With the increased level of security that these payment methods present, consumers would be wise to work them into their payment routines; there’s one problem, though: not every vendor accepts mobile transactions. On both sides of the cash register, it is important to increase awareness of the speed, convenience, and added security mobile wallet payments. Accepting NFC payments is one of the most important technologies for businesses seeking to offer the best mobile credit card processing system. You owe it to your customers, and they’ll increasingly demand it.