What are the contactless payment options?
In addition to giro or credit card, which are held at the checkout to the payment terminal, smartphones and smartwatches are also possible. Either the app of a payment service provider must be downloaded for this purpose. Or you can use the often more universal pay offers from Apple, Samsung- or Google: the cards of cooperating banks can then be stored in their apps.
And many supermarket chains are also involved themselves. With their customer apps, you can redeem and pay for vouchers, for example. The discount giant Payback is just as involved in contactless payment via its app as payment services from Bluecode to Paypal.
Fitbit or Garmin, for example, offer their own payment systems for their sports watches. But even purely analog watches can become a wallet replacement: this is possible, for example, with certain “unspecified” models from the manufacturer Swatch, in which only an integrated chip makes the transaction possible.
What do you need for this?
The basis for most contactless transactions in Germany is near-field communication (NFC), a radio transmission standard. For processing, a credit card, smartphone or watch must have an NFC chip. Newer smartphone models and smartwatches are now actually doing this through the bank.
For people with older mobile phones, supermarket customer apps or other payment services are an alternative, in which a bank account or a money card is also stored. Payment is made here via pay, dash or QR codes, which are presented or scanned at the checkout.
With the exception of the aforementioned Swatch models, it is also usually a prerequisite that the respective device still has enough battery power and is running. The same applies to an existing Internet connection: this must exist with some providers, but not necessarily with others.
How safe is that?
Pretty sure. “Reading out data is very unlikely,” says Stefan Fischer from Stiftung Warentest. Compared to the credit card, paying by app is even very secure. This is due to the fact that the stored card data is not read out directly during the transaction, but an individual sequence of numbers, a kind of code.
Also, the consumer center of North Rhine-Westphalia is not aware of cases in which “criminals specifically attack the contactless payment option,” says lawyer David Riechmann.
For security fanatics, there are special protective covers, at least for bank cards, which prevent near-field communication. In addition, after a certain number of payments or for higher amounts, usually from 25 euros, the PIN must also be entered. There is one more security level for the smartphone: the device must first be unlocked for each payment process.
What about data security?
Not quite so good. Stiftung Warentest has found deficiencies in the terms and conditions or data transmission behavior for several payment apps. It must be clear to consumers that their data goes not only to the provider, but also to payment service providers and possible partners.
Especially the customer apps of the supermarkets are collecting, they know in which branches the customer buys and whether he has changed his preferences. “Anonymous payment is actually only possible in cash. Even the normal card payment, whether by card or smartphone, leaves traces,”consumer protection expert Riechmann makes it clear.
What to do in case of loss?
If a smartwatch, mobile phone or card is lost, one thing is important: have it locked immediately. This can be done via the central blocking emergency call 116 116. Higher losses are unlikely, for this criminals would have to know either the PIN (in the case of stolen NFC cards) or the code to unlock the respective device.
Anyone who has stored biometric data has even less to worry about. And even if purchases have already been made without permission: as long as the smartphone or card is protected accordingly, the consumer center believes that the respective bank must pay for the damage.
