Payment with the smartphone is on the verge of a breakthrough

Paying for offline purchases with a smartphone will soon become established in Switzerland as well.FROM GREGOR WASERThe reality becomes clear when you reach into your jacket pocket: a total of 14 plastic cards are crammed into the credit card case - ID, half-fare card, driver's license, library card, health insurance card and several customer, bank and credit cards. An absurdity. In view of the smartphone, which is also in the jacket and is already suitable or would be suitable today for countless services, carrying all these cards is cumbersome and really no longer in keeping with the times.SBB, Migros and Coop as driversBut something is happening. Important drivers for simplified payment processing in the future are SBB, Migros and Coop. Since November 11, all 8500 payment terminals at Migros checkouts have been activated for contactless payment. For the time being, this means that anyone who has a credit card with an NFC chip only has to hold it up to the reading area for purchases of up to 40 francs. For amounts over 40 francs, a PIN is required.Near Field Communication (NFC) is an international transmission standard for the contactless exchange of data via radio technology over short distances of a few centimeters. The next step will be to examine other modern payment options.All terminals convertedNot only are more and more credit cards equipped with NFC chips, but also smartphones. And the possibility of paying by smartphone at the POS is something that Migros' counterpart Coop now wants to tackle. "We are aiming for a solution that is not limited to credit cards," says media spokesman Urs Meier. "We want to enable contactless payment by credit card and by cell phone. Here we are close to a reliable solution. Back in 2012, we conducted a pilot test for contactless payment using NFC technology. At the moment, a further test phase is running in cooperation with Swisscom until spring 2014. That is why Coop is using the very latest generation of EFT terminals and software. The conversion of the existing EFT terminals to the new ones is expected to be completed for all 8,500 payment terminals by mid-2014. Valora and McDonalds are already further ahead: here, all sales terminals are already equipped with NFC.Smartphone as ticket vending machineAt SBB, the cell phone is increasingly becoming a ticket vending machine for people on the move. Already 3.7 million customers have installed SBB Mobile. The mobile channel is SBB's fastest-growing. "Two-thirds of e-tickets - i.e. online and mobile - are sold via mobile," says SBB spokesman Reto Schärli. "For the past five years, mobile ticket sales have doubled every year. Today, we sell twelve percent of all tickets via mobile and online channels. And SBB will soon begin installing 1,000 new ticket vending machines, which will replace the old ticket vending machines by the end of 2015. These will replace the first-generation ticket vending machines by the end of 2015. Those who have cards with Pay-Pass or similar systems will be able to pay lower amounts contactlessly. The card just has to be laid on. Up to 40 francs, no PIN code is required. Up to 100 francs, a PIN code must be entered.The entire article as PDF: MK Magazine, Digital, Issue 12/2013