When they shop or order services, at first glance, they look ordinary. They acquire a touch of divinity when it's time to settle the bill. After hearing the amount due, they reply majestically: "I'll pay with my phone." Let's be honest, in such a situation, it's impossible to be any more cool. If you want to be like them, we'll show you how to pay contactless with your phone.
Why is it worth switching to phone payments? Discover the most important argument
Do you remember those bizarre infomercial ads where people lead black-and-white lives and mess up the simplest tasks, like spreading butter on bread? Some demonic force makes the twentieth sandwich in a row covered in butter lumps. The situation changes completely when HE appears, the spreading tool. It looks so fancy that even Loki's trembling imagination wouldn't conceive it 😱. The drab reality gains colors, the problem is solved, everyone smiles from ear to ear and devours a slice with jam or ham. They have all good things thanks to a convenient tool!
Is it the same with paying by phone? Is it solely about convenience, because you'll pay with your smartphone faster than with a piece of plastic retrieved from the depths of your bag or pocket? Let's agree – paying with your phone will indeed improve your comfort, but it's not a game changer, as the Anglo-Saxons would say.
The greatest strength of this technology lies in a completely different place. It's about security. It turns out that mobile payments are one of the most well-protected forms of cashless transactions. In this regard, they also surpass settling payments with a card. This is because when paying with your phone, you gain an additional level of encryption related to data transmission on your device. Furthermore, you can add authorization based on facial recognition or fingerprint scanning. Besides, we can probably risk saying that a wallet is more likely to get lost somewhere than a smartphone, which has practically grown into our hand 🙃.
Paying by phone – how does it work?
Mobile payments are handled by NFC on your phone. This enigmatic abbreviation stands for Near Field Communication. This technology uses radio waves to transmit data over short distances. The transferred resources are small, but sufficient for tasks such as pairing with other equipment, opening a lock, an electronic ticket in public transport, or mobile transactions, which we are focusing on here.
In practice, the entire payment process is as follows:
- You enable the service on your phone.
- You authorize the payment with your face, fingerprint, or password.
- You tap your phone to the terminal.
- And that's it!
Interestingly, neither mobile internet nor a Wi-Fi connection is needed to complete the transaction. Paying with your phone remains possible even offline.
Before you can fully enjoy the benefits of mobile transactions, however, you need to go through the setup 🪛. But there's no need to worry, as the entire process shouldn't cause you any difficulties, especially with our guide. See what to do to pay with your phone.
How to pay contactless with an Android phone?
If you belong to the "Green Robot" clan, follow the instructions below:
- Open the Google Wallet app.
- Expand your profile settings by clicking the link in the top right corner of the screen.
- Go to the "Contactless payment settings" section.
- Activate the NFC option and set Google Pay as the default payment application.
- In the main Google Wallet window, click the "+" icon at the bottom.
- Select "Payment card".
- Tap "New credit or debit card".
- Enter the data manually or add a photo.
- Approve the required consents that appear later in the procedure.
When it's time to pay, simply wake up and unlock your phone, then tap it to the terminal. It's worth remembering that the service requires the screen lock to be enabled. It plays the role of an essential security feature.
How can you pay with an Apple phone?
And how should "iPhoners" do it? If you sail under the "Bitten Apple" flag, you can configure mobile payments as follows:
- Open the Wallet app.
- Press the "+" icon in the top right corner.
- Tap "Debit or credit card".
- Choose your bank or an alternative payment service provider.
- Take photos of the card or enter the data manually.
- Follow the instructions to authorize the entered data.
When you want to pay, you need to activate the service. The quickest way to do this is with a keyboard shortcut. If you have an iPhone model that supports Face ID, double-press the side button. For versions equipped with Touch ID, double-press the "Home" button.
As you can see, paying by phone is as simple as can be, and super secure, so if you, Dear Viking, haven't yet sailed into the "contactless smartphone" port, quickly study the guidelines above and conquer new territories 🪓.
