Contactless payment is emerging late in the United States

   – You still often have to sign a paper receipt in restaurants or slip your magnetic card into a slot at the cash desks in US stores. Smart cards have only become widespread in recent years in the United States.

Recently, however, contactless payments are emerging, at least in larger cities. For three months, the New York subway is experimenting at turnstiles three lines of terminals allowing the payment without contact with a credit card or a telephone. Boston's transportation network has also embarked on an investment plan to develop it. What makes use of this habit, said a study of AT Kearney published last year: " As has been the case for other countries, contactless payment in transport should be a catalyst for wider use of contactless cards in the US ".

Production cost

Banking networks are also turning steadily. Last May, Visa, the number one bank card in the United States with 60% of the volumes spent, said that 80 of the top 100 retailers now allowed a contactless payment. And that 11 of the 25 card issuers deploy contactless cards. While Chase Bank has announced for this year the replacement of matured cards and new subscriptions with the contactless option,
Bank of America

   has just launched a program to change 4 million bank cards in the largest cities.

" The cost of producing a contactless card is higher than that of a traditional card, but we hope that with even a modest increase in the number of card transactions, the move to contactless is self-financing In June, a Bank of America executive told PaymentsSource. In his report, AT Kearney estimated the potential gain of a transfer of cash to credit cards, thanks to contactless, $ 2.4 billion in five years for US banks.

Some brands are still reluctant,
like Walmart

   , while the CostCo distributor has instead launched a card in partnership with Citi. Once fully engaged, the contactless conversion can accelerate quickly. According to Visa, 50 countries saw their penetration rise by at least ten points in one year.