Chase Adds Contactless Payments to Visa Cards

By Gavin | July 16, 2019

We're going to talk about chase adding contactless payments to their Visa cards. This is a pretty interesting move, given that the American Express gold card does also have contactless payments for some people.

For a lot of people, this news isn't really going to matter, but if you are someone who travels especially to Asia as well as Europe this can be pretty valuable and save you a bunch of time especially for smaller transactions.

Most transactions you can actually do contactless payments

One of the really big things is that for most transactions you can actually do contactless payments, whether you're jumping on the MTR you have an octopus card where you tap it, and for 711s for a lot of other convenience-based doors, same idea Starbucks as well hey also have contactless payments.

But you can also use other payment methods like the American Express gold card, which is what Mandy did. The main reason is that she's hitting minimum spending for that card right now, and it just makes sense, even if the multipliers aren't as great.

It's not just isolated to convenience stores

The thing two is that it's not just isolated to convenience stores, we went to Muji where I bought a bag and I bought some shoes, and she used an American Express card just to tap and it works in Europe. The main benefit is that you don't need to use a pin, just because they do have a lot of pin-based transactions.

In certain cases, it means that you are going to be able to buy tickets at the train station using the Machine without having to find someone else there or it just speeds up the process a lot more, because you don't have to again either enter that pin or to get something printed out and signed for you.

When I went to Copenhagen we ran into that issue where you had to sign for a lot of random things, even if it was just buying some water. The reason why to me this is very interesting is that chase cards are very valuable and very functional for international travelers.

Chase cards are valuable and functional for international travelers

If you are domestic again this might not be as interesting, but I feel like I end up using my Chase Sapphire Reserve as the workhorse card for most of my transactions, just because when I do travel a lot of it is centered around eating again, depends on where you go.

I mix it up, so we went to the cheapest Michelin-star restaurant and that one is cash only, but there are some other restaurants that accept Chase as well as American Express. The big problems arose out of American Express cards, most of the multipliers are us-centric, so when you see something like Forex back on dining that Forex back has just been for our restaurants. So again it's not really as great.

Having an octopus card and having cash on hand

If you are an eater who likes to try out different things in Hong Kong though again Hobart still recommends having an octopus card and having cash, just because a lot of places are purely cash only.

One funny thing that I might cover in the future is that I actually think that if you are someone that travels American Express cards are actually a bit less optimal, you still might want to have them for status for different hotels for upgrades or for other benefits like lounges.

If you're in Hong Kong airports then you're going to be able to go to the Centurion lounge there, but beyond that, it's not really that functional. I feel like there's a misconception where people think that MX cards are meant for people who travel internationally a lot, and I feel like that's not really the case.

There's a convenience factor

If you are someone based in the US again I think this is going to be a slow process, because even if you look at something like Canada where they implemented this a while ago, not everywhere is using it. It's still something that I feel like is going to take a while before it becomes very normal, but eventually, it will be and I still think there's a convenience factor.

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The big benefit of credit cards is that even if there is some weird fraudulent transaction it's a bit easier to contest them using a debit card or wolf cash. It's easier to either get robbed, or if the transaction doesn't work out properly then you're out of luck you can't believe go back, and be like you didn't give me the right change yesterday.

Mobile payments are actually still the bigger thing

The other thing too is up within u.s. I think mobile payments are actually going to still be the bigger thing because it makes a lot more sense there depending on the country that you are going to, it might not actually work out to use mobile payments there. I haven't really tried it in Hong Kong, but I also haven't really seen anyone else doing it.

If you have any questions about chase implementing this they actually have their own little FAQ. I'm not going to focus on it too much, but I will cover some basic questions that I'm pretty sure you are curious about. If you do want to request a card you don't actually need to wait until your card expires, you can actually contact them and request yourself.

How useful are contactless payments again, I think in u.s. it's going to be a bit interesting, but if you look at a bunch of countries that Chase listed down, Australia, Canada, the UK as well as France, over half the retailers currently accept contactless payments.

Overall I think this is a good change, any technological progress, even if it seems a bit redundant is going to be beneficial, especially if you are someone who travels a lot, just because you're probably using the Chase Sapphire Reserve. I hope that was helpful.