First Data And Visa Plan Contactless Go-Tag Expansion

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First Data Corp. is planning a national launch later this year of its contactless reloadable device known as Go-Tag, Michael Capellas, First Data CEO and Chairman, told analysts this week during a Q4 conference call. The Go-Tags, which are stickers containing contactless-payment chips consumers can affix to objects such as mobile phones, will support Visa's payWave platform to access a prepaid account. Users also will have a companion Visa-branded prepaid card as part of a prepaid debit account system that Visa Inc. and First Data have agreed to develop, a Visa spokesperson tells CardLine sister publication ISO&Agent Weekly. "The launch of Go-Tag supports Visa's strategy to provide consumers with more payment choices and new ways to use a Visa account," she says. "We'll be able to share more details once the Visa-branded Go-Tag products are introduced in select merchant locations, likely later this year." A First Data spokesperson would tell ISO&Agent Weekly only that more information would be provided in the coming months. Merchants able to accept Visa's contactless cards can accept Go-Tag transactions, Capellas said. The Greenwood Village, Colo.-based processor debuted Go-Tags at the Democratic National Convention last year (CardLine, 8/22/08). France-based chip maker Inside Contactless is supplying some of the Go-Tags, First Data confirms. Inside Contactless said in October it was working with a U.S.-based company for a large-scale rollout of contactless stickers (CardLine, 10/8/08). Charlie Walton, Inside Contactless executive vice president for payments, tells ISO&Agent Weekly his company expects to make an announcement Tuesday regarding the First Data-Visa project. Though he provided no details on that announcement, Walton says Inside Contactless over the past three years has sold 95 million of its MicroPass chips, the type used in the Go-Tag stickers, in the United States and Canada. The chips work with contactless payment systems used by Visa Inc., MasterCard Worldwide and Discover Financial Services, but each card brand must load its own software onto the chip, Walton says. "The First Data announcement is very positive for the contactless market," Walton says.