Wednesday 31st October 2007
City workers could be wasting an hour a week by not adopting contactless payment methods, according to Visa.
The credit card provider surveyed 100 London office workers and found that the average time spent purchasing coffee and snacks during the commute is over an hour a week.
But by adopting a contactless payment method - such as the firms payWave service - this could be cut by up to 100 times, Visa claims.
The service operates by eliminating the need for customers to enter their pin for transactions of less than £10.
Instead, they simply wave the card over a scanner - although they are occasionally asked to enter their pin for security reasons.
Visa asserts that the process is similar to that used in Oyster cards, which are prevalent on the London Underground system.
Sandra Alzetta, senior vice-president of innovation and acceptance at Visa Europe, comments: "Technology like Visa payWave means people can save time when they spend - invaluable in our time-pressured society where every second counts."
But a number of other credit card providers are also developing contactless payment systems to rival payWave.
Mastercard is currently trialling its PayPass system throughout London with plans to expand coverage in early 2008.
Some 1,000 retailers - typically coffee and snack providers such as Krispy Kreme and Coffee Republic - have signed up to the trial.
And Barclaycard OnePulse was launched at Canary Wharf tube station in early September.
The contactless card may prove to have the edge as Barclaycard reveals it is the first third-party product to be licensed to incorporate Oyster functionality into its design.
Also capable of operating as a traditional chip and pin credit card, the firm proposes that the product services both large-scale and small-value purchases with no need for a separate card.
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