Contactless payments are transactions made by tapping either a contactless chip card or payment-enabled mobile or wearable device over a contactless-enabled payment terminal. Cards, phones, watches and other devices use the same contactless technology. When you tap to pay, checkout is secure, convenient and touch-free.

Contactless payments use Near Field Communication (NFC) technology to share information between two devices within a short-range. In order to perform a transaction, you must be within inches of a card reader, so you can’t accidentally make a payment.

Contactless payments also use one of the most secure encryption methods available: tokenization. Your information is encoded, and each transaction you make using your contactless card creates a unique, one-time code, reducing security and fraud risks. Due to this technology, contactless payments provide you with more security, reduced fraud risk, and faster payments. 

Contactless credit cards are currently among the safest forms of payment. It’s incredibly difficult for a hacker to recreate the one-time code that contactless credit cards create for each transaction. Compared to magnetic strips that are more easily duplicated, contactless credit cards are much more secure.

The easiest way for a thief to leverage contactless payment technology is to steal your physical credit card. Since signatures are often not required for contactless payments, thieves could theoretically get away with making fraudulent payments, but card issuer’s fraud departments have become quite sophisticated and any fraudulent charges will likely be flagged and refunded to your account. Always contact your card issuer right away if your credit card is stolen or you notice fraudulent activity. Despite the sophistication, you shouldn’t rely on a fraud-monitoring service or your issuer to catch fraud. For this reason, some card issuers have a limit on the amount that can be paid via contactless payment. This protection may not always extend to debit cards, so check with your card’s issuer to verify fraud protections.

Learn more about keeping your information safe.