Suits Me® Simplified: Banking 101

Payment Wallets – Your Cards In Your Phone

Smartphones now offer a way of making payments, that doesn’t mean carrying around a wallet or purse.

With technology becoming ever-more integrated, there’s now a new and improved way to pay for your goods, and that doesn’t involve carrying around a wallet or a purse. Smartphones now offer a means of making payment, giving you everything you need in one handy package.

Payment wallets are a digital commodity which allows you to carry your cards and cash on your mobile phone, providing a convenient option. Safe and secure, it’s a very contemporary way of making payment.

If you haven’t already made the switch, here’s everything you need to know about payment wallets and getting started.

How do Digital Wallets Work?

There are a variety of different apps you can download onto your smartphone, depending on whether you’re using Apple, Android or Samsung, such as Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay. Once it’s downloaded you’ll need to enter your card details into your phone. You can include a wide variety of cards, including loyalty cards, as well as Mastercard® payment cards.

When you’re ready to pay in a shop or outlet, you can use this mobile wallet on your phone. This might mean you need to unlock your phone and select the card via your app at the checkout. Some retailers will be equipped with NFC technology which means you only need to tap your phone against the terminal. This is the same technology that contactless payment cards use.

Are Digital Wallets Secure?

One of the biggest challenges that new technology faces is ensuring that it’s secure and can’t be easily abused. Although you might feel wary about entering your card information into your phone, it’s actually one of the safest ways you can choose to pay.

When you upload your card details, the information is instantly encrypted. This immediately makes it safer than carrying a physical payment card around in your purse or wallet.

It is a good idea to make sure your phone has some kind of protection, just in case you lose it. This could be either a pin number or fingerprint technology. Two-step identification is a smart move and offers the maximum protection.

As well as apps that can help you to track down a phone that you’ve lost, there are also apps that will wipe your payment wallet remotely. This provides extra reassurance if you’re worried about a thief getting their hands on your data.

Where to use a Digital Wallet?

The technology to use a payment wallet / digital wallet has been around a little while now so the good news is that an increasing number of retailers offer this as a method of payment. There are many reasons for retailers to prefer payment wallets too, including faster check-out times, reducing the queues in-store.

Although payment wallets won’t replace the use of plastic payment cards completely, the use of this mobile technology is only likely to increase further. However, the convenience for both the user and the retailer means that it’s an option for payment which is set to increase even further in the foreseeable future.

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