1 euro in every 7 spent on a Visa card

Visa will be launching a digital wallet this year, and expects to see half of Europe's transactions being done on a mobile phone by 2020, but plastic cards are looking good too, according to Visa Europe's Annual Report. It's no surprise that Visa is planning a 2012 launch; it has already announced that there will be a special …

[Dave Horn]

"...user reluctance (or ignorance) which is preventing more-widespread use."

REALLLY? More likely the fact that despite what Visa says, not all that many cards actually support the contactless feature (ref: Nationwide, Santander etc) and it's still not 100% reliable. Most retailers still tuck away the contactless component of the reader (lookin' at you, Caffe Nero) and the look of utter surprise on the face of the cashiers suggest that they very rarely see contactless payments.

[Great Bu]

Look out, Normans !

I think it would be very interesting if Visa could roll out 20 million more contactless cards by 1012, especially with the likely upcoming impact of the Norman invasion in 1066......

[AndrueC]

Maybe they are just very precise and the last one will be issued half an hour after I post this :D

[MJI]

Euros question

I had a bag of them recently - after I got the wrappers off there was chocolate underneath.

Actually I have been wondering about this, does a country new to Euro use cards more than it did with its old currency? Lots of strange coins of a strange value, the card takes some of the confusion off.

[AndrueC]

I reckon 9 out of ten of my transactions are VISA already. Off-hand the only times I can remember paying cash are once a week when buying a Chinese meal for work lunch and on Saturday when I have to feed £4 into a machine to get my balls(*) so that I can hit them with a club.

(*)Golf balls, you pervert :D

[Truffle]

What if..

But what if my phone battery has died and I need to buy a new phone battery?

[Bill Ray]

Re: What if..

Payments can be made using current induced from the reader, as required by the NFC spec.

However, you won't be able to use the phone's screen to check your balance and see if you can afford that new battery.

Bill.

[pisquee]

Fraud moving to the internet where Chip and Pin can't help. How about bank issuing some sort of Chip and Pin device to use at home, either standalone like the current ones used with online banking, or one that plugs in to the computer.

[John 62]

Verified By Visa

Will they improve the user experience by allowing better passwords on Verified by Visa? (No non-alpha characters????) I don't use it often so I can never remember my password and have to reset it every time. Then it seems like nothing happens when you create your new password. If you click the little link to go back through the process, you can enter your new password, but it's not obvious. Since I can't remember my password, they might as well just ask for the other bits out account info.

[shuckie]

Re: Verified By Visa

I think Verified By Visa has been replaced by ClickSafe, or at least it has by LloydsTSB;

http://www.lloydstsb.com/debit_cards/clicksafe.asp

The last few times I've performed transactions via a site which used to use Verified By Visa the payment has been checked and authorised automatically without me needing to enter the password.

I just hope I can remember what my password is if I'm randomly asked for it in a few months time... ;-)

[ptpeetee]

"...user reluctance (or ignorance) which is preventing more-widespread use." Or in the case of most of these things I come across (Pret a Manger, Yo Sushi, Nero), they probably only work about 40% of the time.

[Mr Nobody 1]

Title Optional

Fraud moving to the internet where chip/pin can't help. Hmmmmm sounds like a puff piece for that aberration called Verified By Visa if you ask me.

[Nigel Smart]

> Fraud moving to the internet where chip/pin can't help.

Actually they COULD roll out the CAP system used for online banking in the UK to authenticate the web based credit card transaction. This would be better than the Verified by Visa rubbish

[Anonymous Coward]

Well with actual cash in hand; there's lots of ways of defrauding you. And then you add a payment method where the workings and logic are invisible to you.

And the whole scheme is based upon trust in banks.

Fuck that. Really.

[Nigel Smart]

> Fraud moving to the internet where chip/pin can't help.

They could use the CAP system which is used for online banking in the UK. After all they have this set up in most banks

[Anonymous Coward]

So do we need the Euro if we're making electronic payments? (No currency to change)

The trend towards electronic, cash-less payment makes physical currency less relevant - and therefore the benefit of the Euro less so.

Countries could go back to their former currencies - and with that control over their own interest rates to suit there domestic economy: a solution to the current crisis. Low interest rates of the central bank suited counties with manufacturing bases but not in others where it fuelled a property bubble.

Moreover, additional services on a phone-based payment system could be a currency converter - so when in another country you could see instantly how much an item would cost in your country of origin, to help you decide to buy. In fact online shops such as amazon.co.uk do something like this already if for example placing an order on their UK shop to be delivered in Italy.