Cash, Card, or Mobile Phone?

Right now, retailer, need to get grips with the dawn of contactless payment. In the past week there has been a raft of announcements and news on alternative payment methods. Technologists everywhere are still convinced that they can come up with something better than cash for smaller transactions. The alternative method that retailers must consider in the immediate future is contactless payment. A few stores in London have gone live with the Barclaycard Business contactless payment system already more than 1,000 other sites have signed up to use it, and 3,000 consumers have registered their interest in the system's one pulse contactless card.

The questions are :

• Could we use it or apply it in Indonesia?

Yes, of course we can apply it in Indonesia. With every facility and convenience, nowadays, there are so many people in this country using credit card, debit card, e-money, mobile phone and etc., which are included as contactless payment. People don't have to bring many cash for their transactions on the certain place.

• What are the benefits or advantages that we got as a consumer?

As a consumer that use the contactless payment, we got the benefits or advantages, such as :

1. Convenience. We just need to touch your contactless card or device against the reader to pay in seconds. And there is no need to find cash and we can easily track our purchases on our statement or our banking app.
2. Secure. Contactless payment are safe and highly secure. They have the same protection as chip and PIN payments, making them safer than cash. Contactless cards and devices are embedded with multiple layers of security to protect you against fraud.
3. More features. When specifically tied to a smartphone, many feature are now available, such as payment history, remote deactivation, virtual card provisioning, user-configured-pin protection, etc.
4. Flexibility of Alternate Form Factors. Contactless payment technology doesn't have to be delivered on conventional plastic cards. Contactless technology is increasingly available to consumers in other forms, such as mini-cards, stickers, key fobs and even mobile wallets that turn contactless-enabled-phone into payment devices-reducing the need to bring the physical wallet at all.

• Which one would you prefer : cash, card, or mobile phone?

Between three payment choices above, i would prefer using card or mobile phone. Because it's easier and faster for me to use at certain places in Indonesia, like supermarket etc.


References :

https://www.firstdata.com/downloads/thought-leadership/contactless-payments-benefits.pdf

http://www.theukcardsassociation.org.uk/contactless_consumer/the_benefits_of_contactless.asp

https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-contactless-payment-systems