MasterCard lets customers pay without swiping

MasterCard has announced a new card based on chip and pin and radio technologies, allowing customers to pay without swiping.

15:42 03 November 2004

MasterCard has announced a new card based on chip and pin and radio technologies, allowing customers to pay without swiping.

MasterCard's product incorporates wireless technology into a card to allow for contactless payments like the Oyster smartcard used on the London Underground.

"OneSMART PayPass combines the power and security of MasterCard M/Chip, with the speed and convenience of contactless payments," Pascal Dufour, vice-president and head of chip product management, MasterCard International, told Computer Weekly.

"Contactless payments are most powerful in places where speed is of the essence - such as in quick-serve restaurants, petrol stations and tollways. Cardholders simply tap their PayPass-enabled card on the PayPass reader and are on their way."

At the same conference, Visa announced it was to extend the pilot of a service to verify the identity of cardholders paying for goods online.

The service, Verified for Visa, generates a one-off password for the cardholder for each online transaction. The card owner inserts their card into a reader, which then checks their identity with the card providers' IT system.