VeriFone’s next generation VX Evolution contactless payment solutions are being piloted with a number of merchants in the UK and Ireland, by Integral – the first vendor to gain accreditation for the latest range of mobile and countertop POS systems here.
The VeriFone VX Evolution solutions support the latest PCI standards (PCI PTS 3.0) and smartphone protocols for reading contactless enabled cards or NFC (Near Field Communications) enabled smartphones, ensuring a merchant’s investment is future-proofed. Today consumers can pay with contactless cards simply by waving or tapping their card on a VeriFone contactless reader, but very soon consumers will be able to utilise their NFC enabled smartphones to pay for goods totalling less than £15, or enter a PIN number on their phone for higher value payments.
Eric Cooney, Head of Marketing at Integral says: “We’re still in the pilot stage, assessing performance in the field and taking customer feedback before rolling out to more merchants. Initial feedback is very positive. Being the first with this new technology means we are ahead of the trend as I firmly believe within a short time many smartphones from major vendors will be NFC capable and this will drive NFC forward as a standard payment method.”
Initial merchant deployments are using the VX 680, which incorporates a 3.5 inch full colour touch screen into one of the smallest portable handheld payment devices available. Whilst the colour screen enables logos and high visibility branding and messaging to be presented at the point of sale, the large memory capacity on the VX 680 also means merchants can add feature-rich services such as loyalty and new applications that will capitalise on NFC enabled smartphones. As the VX 680 device is fully portable, using eitherWi-Fi, GPRS or Bluetooth communication technology, it enables retailers, restaurateurs and other hospitality organisations to offer mobile payment wherever customers want to pay.
Integral has a proven track record in developing innovative payment systems on VeriFone platforms for 20 years. Tony Saunders, NEMEA Marketing and Sales Director, VeriFone confirms: “In the UK and Ireland, Integral is the first to accredit our VX Evolution devices including the wireless VX 680 and countertops VX 520 and VX 820 DUET.”
