As a leading payment technology company, Visa's vision for the future is to enable consumers and retailers to pay and be paid using Visa conveniently and securely anytime, anywhere, using any device.
To pursue our vision for the future of payments, we have developed and continue to develop a series of innovative payment solutions and products using new technologies to make payments more convenient and more available.
Contactless
Contactless technology plays a key part in this innovation. Contactless cards allow simple, fast and secure payments of purchases less than £20. To make the transaction, you simply need to hold your contactless card within a few centimetres of an equipped payment terminal.
Mobile
The contactless functionality of a card can also be incorporated into a mobile phone equipped with NFC technology to make Visa contactless payments on mobile. To make a payment, you simply select the Visa mobile contactless application, and hold the phone in front of a contactless reader when you pay. For higher value transactions, a PIN is also required.
Other exciting developments
To supplement these key developments, we are also developing specific new products and services for consumers such as Visa Alerts and Visa Personal Payments. Visa Alerts allows Visa cardholders to sign up for a near-real-time confirmation, delivered directly to their mobile phone, when their card is used. Visa Personal Payments allows Visa cardholders to send money to each other using their mobile phones.
In the online space, we are currently developing the digital wallet service, V.me by Visa, which will enable you to pay safely and conveniently online on smartphones, tablets, laptops and PCs.
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Flow Faster with Visa
Our latest TV ad is set in London and features our payment innovation technologies that will be showcased in the summer of 2012. Using the tagline ‘flow faster’ with Visa, the ad aims to show that Visa payments with contactless and mobile can be faster in comparison to previous Visa payment methods.
Next steps
In order to make these technologies available for you to use, we are working with our member banks and other partners such as major retailers, mobile phone manufacturers and mobile phone operators to bring these new services to life.
To date, over 30 million Visa contactless cards have been issued in Europe, with many more Visa member banks planning to roll-out the service throughout 2012. To enable mobile payments, Visa is already working with key manufacturers such as Samsung, mobile operators such as Vodafone, financial institutions and retailers around the world to put the necessary infrastructure in place for broad availability.
Contactless, mobile and online services will roll out at different speeds in different countries according to local regulations and participation of local member banks and other partners.
In the UK, contactless technology is currently available and mobile payment technology is being introduced during 2012. Be sure to come back regularly to these pages for an update, or consult our latest press releases.
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