May 2, 2007

NEWS: WaMu Goes Contactless

Washington Mutual announced last week that it is taking a step into the world of contactless technology. WaMu will enter the contactless world via deals with Visa;s payWave and MasterCard’s PayPass technology. The bank sees the step as a way to boost convenience and speed of transactions for their cardholders, as well as a way to keep up with competitors, many of whom have already rolled out similar products.

Contactless technology allows consumers to merely tap or wave their card near a participating merchant’ s specific piece of equipment to quickly transmit card data. The lack of having to swipe the card through a reader or hand it to an employee makes the transactions more secure, as well. Both the Visa and MasterCard contactless products have a magnetic stripe as well, to work in a traditional card-swipe situation in the absence of contactless hardware.

WaMu, like other financial institutions, is touting its new contactless products as a convenient alternative to cash for its consumers. As most transactions under $25 do not requite signatures, using the contactless card is virtually as good as cash. Or so WaMu would like their retail customers to think!
 

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