Five Things You Should Know About Contactless RFID Credit Cards
What is a contactless credit card and how does it work?
For decades, credit cards have relied on magnetic stripes located on the reverse side of the card to store data. To transmit this data, the card must be swiped through a magnetic reader, making physical contact with the stripe. A contactless credit card, on the other hand, stores its data on a chip embedded in the card’s plastic. This data is transmitted not magnetically, but rather via a tiny radio signal when the card comes in close proximity of a special reader at the checkout stand. This works through radio frequency identification technology, also known as RFID. When the chip comes close enough to the reader, an antenna on the chip is jolted to life by the electromagnetic field created by the reader, and transaction data is sent to into the system.
What are the advantages of contactless credit cards?
For starters, these RFID credit cards are much faster and more convenient than traditional magnetic stripe cards. A cardholder simply waves the card over the reader, waits a moment for the acceptence signal from the machine,...