Following the launch of Apple Pay in the UK last week, new MasterCard figures show that the British public are willing to embrace mobile payments despite some hesitation.
One in four British consumers said that they expect to make a contactless payment with their mobile in the next year. Furthermore, in terms of how they will use their devices, one-third said they weren’t ready to link payments made by their phone directly to their bank account, and instead expect to assign them to a credit card account. A further third gave “added consumer protection” as their reason for preferring to link their credit card account to their phone.
Like all new technologies there can be some natural hesitation to adoption, the most common of which relate to security issues. 7 out of 10 people worry that if they lost their phone someone could use it to buy things with their money, over half fear that their phone could be hacked and money stolen, and 4 in 10 plan to wait to for others to confirm that mobile contactless payments are safe before they try it themselves.
Huw Davies, Head of Emerging Payments, MasterCard UK & Ireland said: “Mobile payments are still in their infancy, so of course it’s natural for consumers to be hesitant. That’s why we have built the secure foundations for these payments across our network. Should a phone fall into the wrong hands, it’s of no use for making payments and customers can also be reassured that none of their card or banking details are stored on their device.”
MasterCard has created a way to digitally enable cards (through ‘MDES’)’ which has been built to ensure transactions can take full advantage of the most advanced payment security in the world.
For users, that means their card number is replaced with a ‘token’ when they pay with MasterCard via a mobile device – for example with Apple Pay. The token is created the moment a MasterCard is first added to the device. This secret, 16-digit number is unique to that device and will only ever be used when paying with that device.
In the case of Apple Pay, the device is useless to anyone else trying to pay with it, because they would fail the TouchID thumbprint verification and they don’t know the rightful owner’s passcode. Payment card details are not stored on the device or on Apple’s servers. Furthermore retailers will no longer see or store your card number and expiry date when you pay with Apple Pay, helping to reduce the potential for fraud.
Apple Pay is available on a range of devices and MasterCard is working with multiple banks, including: HSBC; MBNA; RBS/Natwest and Santander, to enable their customers to use their MasterCard credit or debit cards directly through Apple Pay. Customers of those banks that are ready to support Apple Pay today can use the service even if their physical card is not contactless-enabled, MasterCard digitises the card and the Apple device allows it to be used contactlessly.
