Ditch your wallet now: NFC mobile payments explained

EE this week announced it will be bringing a mobile wallet system called “Cash on Tap” to customers with selected NFC-equipped phones. The system, being run in partnership with MasterCard, will arrive on 17th July and will be accepted in over 230,000 outlets in the UK (McDonald’s, Greggs and Boots among them – anywhere that accepts contactless cards, basically), allowing users to make payments of up to £20.

The system works by embedding your data in the phone’s SIM, and requires you download the EE Tap Wallet app. Money comes from a Cash on Tap account, which you can top up using a credit or debit card. The app is PIN-protected to prevent thieves adding more money to the account, and if you report your phone lost or stolen EE will refund any payments made.

The phones supported for the July roll-out of Cash on Tap are the Samsung Galaxy S3 LTE, Samsung Galaxy S4 and Sony Xperia SP.

The UK’s first mobile wallet service, Orange and Barclaycard’s Quick Tap allows transactions of up to £15 to be made with an NFC phone. The money comes from an account that can be topped up using a MasterCard or Visa credit or debit card. It works in a similar way to Cash on Tap and offers similar security measures, including the option to require a PIN every time you make a payment.

The only phone in Orange’s current range to support Quick Pay is the Samsung Galaxy S3 LTE. 

Due for launch in the UK this year, Vodafone SmartPass is another system that uses a special NFC-embedded SIM card and a app in order to add credit to your account. You can PIN protect payments if you wish, and cancel the account in the event of losing your phone.

The system, which will be run in partnership with Visa, is being publicly trialled in Australia and Italy at the moment, and reportedly by hundreds of Vodafone staff here in the UK. Expect SmartPass to roll out very soon.

O2 Wallet currently doesn’t support NFC payments, but the network has announced that it is currently testing a “second phase” of the app which will do just that.

O2, along with Vodafone and EE, is also one of the co-founders of Weve, a company working on setting up a proper, unified platform for NFC mobile phone payments in the UK. Weve will launch its platform, which will feature discounts, automated loyalty schemes and the ability to pay bills, at some point in 2014.

Visa Europe has announced that it will launch a mobile contactless payments system to the UK by December this year. Details are fairly thin on the ground, but it’ll likely use the payWave system, which keeps the payment details in an embedded secure element in a phone’s NFC chip rather than on the SIM card. By doing things this way, payWave keeps the mobile networks out of the mobile payment equation, leaving the phone manufacturer and Visa to slice up the profits.

At present, the only phone to come with the secure payWave applet pre-installed is the Samsung Galaxy S4. But expect more devices – particularly from Samsung, which has inked a partnership deal with Visa – to feature it in the near future.

Google Wallet isn’t available in the UK, and Google has not announced plans to bring it across the pond – but we wouldn’t be surprised to see it arrive at some point in the future.

Google’s approach is similar to what Weve is trying to do: to not only replace your credit card but also your money-off coupons, loyalty cards, gift vouchers with an NFC-equipped phone.

It features a PIN system and all unauthorised purchases are covered by purchase protection.