As any customer or business owner knows, there are numerous ways to pay for a product. Increasingly, cash is taking a back seat to other more secure, convenient and portable solutions. If you own a small business, it behooves you to get a sense of some of the most best payments options available to you today.
CREDIT CARDS
They have changed a lot since they were first introduced by MasterCard in 1966. These days, the customer generally inserts their card into a credit card reader that “looks at” the card’s chip. Depending on the merchant and the brand of card used, a signature or PIN might be required. The encrypted information is then sent from the merchant’s point-of-sale (POS) system to the payment service provider, which gets in touch with the merchant’s bank for authorization. The bank then contacts the issuer of the customer’s credit card. If the payment is accepted, the information is relayed to the merchant’s POS system. Believe it or not, all of this happens in a matter of seconds. The process is fast, secure and available virtually anywhere.
CONTACTLESS PAYMENTS
In recent years, more and more merchants are harnessing the power of passive radio frequency identification (RFID) to streamline the payment process. A customer simply waves their contactless RFID card in front of a similarly embedded reader. Because no password authentication is required, purchases with this technology are generally no greater than $50 in value. Payments are fast, convenient and secure and can be linked to a smartphone. That being said, it is important to keep contactless cards in protective sleeves to prevent so-called electronic pickpockets from stealing sensitive customer data.
MOBILE WALLETS
You may ask what are mobile payments? Mobile payments are the next logical step after contactless credit cards. Once a customer sets theirs up in their smartphone to include their credit card numbers, CVs and expiration dates, the wallet securely stores the information. It can then be accessed when the customer wishes to make a purchase from a merchant that accepts payments from digital wallets such as Apple Pay and Android Pay. The customer’s security is enhanced because a wallet payment cannot go through unless a PIN or fingerprint is received and authenticated. Advantages include portability, convenience, security and the potential for having receipts emailed to the consumer.
The world of payment processing is dynamic. What is cutting-edge today may eventually become as old-school as cash is now. No matter how money changes hands, however, it seems clear that the ways people buy and sell goods and services will continue to become easier, more streamlined and secure.
