Technewsworld writes about Arby’s, a restaurant chain with some 1000 outlets, that has invested in a contactless card network across the US. While the roll out has been expensive for the chain, they believe the whole effort will be worthwhile. For consumers, contactless technology offers convenience. There’s no personal identification number to enter and no need to swipe a card, and transactions under $25 don’t require signatures. Users simply hold the cards about an inch away from the readers to activate them. For Arby’s speed is important, and contactless promise faster transaction times. American Express claims that transactions using its ExpressPay-enabled credit cards can be completed in about one-third the time of a cash transaction and about half the time of a swipe-card transaction. The biggest problem that chains like Arby’s face just now is the low levels of contactless penetration(in single digits at the moment). One of the stumbling blocks for the technology becoming universal is getting establishments who are not very concerned with speed of transactions to invest in the POS terminals that are needed to make these transactions happen. Read more.
Filed under: Behaviour, E Payments, Finance, Trends
