Visa payWave is a relatively new feature available on Visa chip cards that supports contactless payments at the point-of-sale.
Visa payWave also supports non-standard cards and non-card form factors such as mobile phones, key fobs and other personal consumer devices.Visa payWave is designed to drive card payments into traditionally cash-based retail environments where speed and convenience are important, such as convenience stores, petrol stations, transit, quick-service restaurants and cinemas.
Payments are made via radio frequency; much like those used in mass transit environments. A Visa payWave card has an antenna embedded in the card plastic as shown below.
By simply holding a Visa payWave card at a close range to the specially installed contactless payment reader, often referred to as a “dongle”, at the point-of-sale, the card will be detected, and the chip in the card will be powered on. This will allow a wireless communication protocol to be established between the card and the reader enabling the transfer of information which happens in approximately 400ms. This is illustrated in the diagram on the left.
The reader indicates to the cardholder how long to keep the Visa payWave card within close proximity of the reader through displaying status lights.
Built on interoperable standards, Visa payWave is fully compatible with the global EMV smart card specification that is currently being adopted by banks around the world and in Asia Pacific. It uses the ISO 14443 interface standard, and can include Near Field Communication (NFC) to enable personal consumer devices such as mobile phones or PDAs.
Visa payWave should be considered as part of an integrated strategy for new payment technologies to further develop your payment business. As with most new technologies, it may take some time before a critical mass of Visa payWave cards and readers can be reached.
Visa therefore recommends that you manage the introduction of Visa payWave by considering it as part of your overall card issuance and acceptance strategy.
