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Contactless payments are a simple way to make purchases with one touch. To make a contactless payment in Ireland, all you need to do is wave your debit or credit card above a card machine and you can make purchases of up to €50 without inserting your card or entering your PIN. This guide helps you compare cards with contactless functionality, understand how the technology works and learn how to keep your contactless payments secure.
A contactless payment, sometimes referred to as a tap-and-go payment, is a feature incorporated into debit or credit cards that allows you to make in-store purchases faster. When you make a purchase of up to €50 at a retailer that has a card machine, you just need to hold your card close to the reader on the machine for a few seconds. The machine should then beep to signal that the payment has been accepted. This is why it’s called a contactless payment, because your card doesn’t need to make contact with the machine for the payment to work and you don’t need to enter your PIN.
Some of the most popular contactless devices include:
Mobile devices don’t tend to have a payment limit as these typically require an extra layer of identification in the form of a PIN, fingerprint or face scan.
Most debit and credit cards in Ireland give you the option of making contactless payments. This includes Mastercard and Visa credit cards from all the major banks and providers, including the institutions below:
There are also plenty of credit cards that offer contactless mobile payments with Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Credit cards, debit cards and other devices including smartphones use Near Field Communication (NFC) technology to make secure, contactless payments. The chip in the debit or credit card communicates with the card machine through radio signals to authorise and process the transaction from a few centimetres away.
The embedded chip allows you to wave your card or smartphone device over a contactless card machine without having to insert the card into the machine and enter your PIN.
In some instances and after using the contactless method to make several purchases, you may be asked to enter your PIN as an added security measure.
With your debit or credit card, you’ll be able to make purchases of up to €50 without entering your PIN.
It’s come a long way since being introduced in Ireland when contactless payments were limited to purchases up to €15. It was later increased to €30 in 2015 and raised again to its current limit of €50 in April 2020 to help reduce the spread of COVID.
There’s no physical difference to you when actually making the contactless payment. However, if you pay with your debit card, your payment will be drawn from your current account. If you pay using your credit card, transactions will always be drawn from your credit card account.
The beauty of making a contactless payment is that it’s super fast and really easy to do.
These days, contactless payments are accepted in most major retailers in Ireland including at supermarkets, department stores, petrol stations and restaurants and cafes. Look for the contactless payment symbol on the card machine.
Every day during August 2020, no less than two million contactless payments were made totalling nearly €990 million, according to the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland.
There are a lot of measures in place to ensure you don’t accidentally make a payment without meaning to, or that someone can’t hijack the signal to rob you. Thanks to these and additional safeguards put in place by Visa, Mastercard and banks in Ireland, contactless payments are in some ways even more secure than classic debit or credit card payments.
Additionally, you’re protected by Visa and Mastercard’s zero liability policies. These state that you will not be held liable for fraudulent or unauthorised transactions made on your Irish issued cards, within reason.
Contactless payment transactions are usually processed within 3-5 business days, but it can take longer. While the transaction is pending, the purchase may be deducted from your available funds.
You won’t be able to make a contactless payment using your debit or credit card to for purchases over €50. You’ll either need to pay using your debit or credit card’s traditional chip and PIN system or pay using your smartphone.
If you head out the door with just your phone, you’ll still be able to make purchases without having your debit or credit card with you. A digital wallet such as Google Pay and Apple Pay. These digital wallets can store your card details and be used in place of your card. As long as you have an eligible device and debit card you just need to download the app and add your card details.
And unlike you won’t have to worry about transaction limits when using your smartphone.
Contactless payments are ideal for making small purchases up to €50. And with most major retailers in Ireland accepting this type of payment method, you shouldn’t run into any problems. The rising popularity of contactless payments means that Ireland moves ever closer to becoming a cashless society – as long as your purchases are below €50. If however, your payment is over €50, you’ll need to use the traditional chip and PIN method or turn to your smartphone and pay using a digital wallet such as Google Pay or Apple Pay.
If you’re looking to make contactless payments using your smartphone instead of your debit or credit card, read our guides on Google Pay and Apple Pay to find out more.
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