MasterCard Worldwide is making headway in the use of its PayPass service by embedding the contactless chips in wristbands distributed at festivals and other events.
Contactless technology not only is delivering on its promise of faster transactions, but the wristbands also are proving to be an effective way to manage entrance to events, Jason Field, business leader in product management for MasterCard’s Global PayPass Solutions division, told PaymentsSource in an interview.
Most recently, 500 VIP guests and vendors who attended the Isle of Wight festival last weekend in the United Kingdom expressed satisfaction with the wristbands. Each VIP received a wristband that accessed £30 (US$48.40 or 34.18 euros) in a prepaid account on a first-come, first-served basis. They could use the wristbands to buy food and drinks at Central Catering’s bar and Jamie Oliver’s Fabulous Feast restaurant.
Event organizers praised the technology’s efficiency and speed, which left some restaurant patrons surprised at how fast the transactions were, Field said, noting the transaction speeds were within two to three seconds.
“We’ve been thrilled by the transaction speed, as that and convenience are the key things that are top of mind with contactless transactions,” Field said.
For the festival, MasterCard used about 25 Ingenico Corp. Bluetooth contactless EFT930BCC terminals, which authorized transactions immediately. HSBC Merchant Services processed the transactions, and Newcastle Building Society was the issuer that held the funds.
Central Catering, which Field said had tried other cashless systems, also liked the contactless wristbands.
“We’ve played around with cashless systems in the past, as we see many future benefits in them, but had not yet found one that had a truly financial or totally practical viability,” Mark Hatch, director of Central Catering, said in a release.
As part of the VIP wristband distribution, attendees agreed to respond to survey questions about how the contactless-payment technology worked for them. As a useful research ground for PayPass, MasterCard also had employees talking to users throughout the festival, Field said.
Of those survey respondents, 96% said the wristbands were quicker to use than credit cards, debit cards or cash, 98% said they was easier to use than those payment methods, and all said they would like to use contactless wristbands again for future events.
Aside from speed and convenience, MasterCard also sought to prove that festivals and events could use its PayPass wristbands, which Kent, England-based ID&C Ltd. manufactured, for security at entrances and exits.
Thieves stole about 50 wristbands from MasterCard’s event office, and the event organizers were able to identify and apprehend them by scanning the barcodes on the wristbands, Field said.
The use of wristbands tied to prepaid accounts can be helpful for events such as festivals where attendees often find it burdensome to have to carry and use cash and payment cards, one analyst says.
“These events that are very controlled and closed are a natural fit for contactless payments,” says Megan Bramlette, director at Auriemma Consulting Group. “There’s a lot going on in different places to make carrying [payment options like cash or cards] a burden, and that controlled environment makes it very conducive to using contactless technology for payment.”
Though MasterCard did not provide details, it plans to use PayPass-enabled wristbands at future events in the UK. In a similar test, MasterCard also provided PayPass wristbands to 700 VIPs at the UEFA Champions League final, a major football (soccer) event that took place on May 28 at Wembley Stadium in London.
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