Here are some safety tips if you use your phone to pay

26/12/2023

Are you one of those people who never leaves the house without their phone? Phones are certainly very handy items that let us do more and more every day, including paying for our shopping. When you have a payment card on your phone, it uses NFC technologyAbre en ventana nueva to communicate with the card reader and transfer data.

Do you know how to configure a card to use on your phone? You have to use something called a digital wallet that can securely store payment cards. You can use either your phone’s built-in wallet or your bank’s specific app. Adding your card is simple: either enter the details manually or train your camera on it. Boosting security can be done by adding extra steps, such as an unlock pattern, a PIN, a fingerprint or facial recognition. Payment tokenisationAbre en ventana nueva, the IT system that underpins mobile payments, offers an additional security layer, meaning that even if you lose your phone, nobody can access your payment data.

To pay with your phone securely, keep these pointers in mind:

• First, your phone should be set up with a screen lock, so that only you, the legitimate cardholder, can make payments. Most apps won’t allow you to configure your cards without this basic security measure in place.
• You can enhance security further by enabling two-factor authentication to access your digital wallet.
• Additionally, set a minimum amount for which entering a PIN is required. The default is usually set at €50 for cards.
• Lastly, disable NFC on your device when you’re not using it.