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Swiss credit, debit and prepaid card operators leave the limit for contactless payment without entering a PIN at 80 francs. They raised this limit from CHF 40 to CHF 80 in April due to the corona pandemic.
This has two goals: on the one hand, contact with the payment terminal should be minimized, and on the other, customers should be encouraged to forego cash. Now, the credit card operators have jointly decided to keep the cap on the new value going forward, they wrote in several separate communications on Tuesday.
Significantly more transactions
The need for contactless payments without entering a PIN has been shown to remain very great, so the card operators in unison. The trend for contactless payments was around before, but was accelerated by the pandemic, according to the Visa statement.
It is visible throughout Europe. In Switzerland, the share of contactless Visa transactions increased by 25 percent compared to the previous year.
At American Express, contactless transactions have increased by 20 percent since the end of the lockdown, according to Swisscard. “In terms of sales, it was even 58 percent,” Enrico Salvadori, Swisscard sales manager, is quoted in the message.
The corona pandemic has accelerated structural change in payment behavior, as recent months have shown. Postfinance also wrote that contactless payments had risen continuously since the start of the pandemic. (SDA / koh)
