As confirmed by the Ministry of Health, coronavirus can be transmitted in 3 routes, including through the contaminated touching surface. This raises concerns about using public touching surfaces such as fingerprint scanners, elevator buttons, door handles, etc. and especially cash. Therefore, it is recommended by experts to use modern forms of payment instead of cash to avoid direct contact and virus spread.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends using contactless payment or smartphone apps such as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, etc. Mark Barnett - President of Mastercard United States said the reduction in contact payment assumes great significance in this pandemic situation: “We fully support the growing contactless payment in the US and across Europe. Cardholders and store owners will soon be able to make and receive their purchases quickly and safely, even without entering a PIN”
In Vietnam, contactless cards have been widely accepted in various merchants such as convenience stores, restaurants and supermarkets/shopping malls... such as KFC, CGV, Circle K, Co.opMart. However, this type of card has not been popular and is issued only by a few major banks. In which, BIDV Visa Platinum Cashback card product, which applies EMV Contactless technology, was officially launched by BIDV in December 2019.
All that customers have to do is just lightly touch the card on the payment icon and hold the card at a close distance (less than 4 cm). For successful transaction, the screen will show “Approved”/”Successful transaction” and the card reader may sound beep/flash green.
Ms. Thu Ha (Cau Giay, Hanoi), a BIDV Visa Platinum Cashback cardholder stated that: “This card helps me minimize my public touching when shopping for goods and services, especially in this pandemic. I no longer have to care about cash, money change, or signing the invoice less than VND1 million. Most importantly, everything happens very quickly and accurately.”
And as said by Mr. Quoc Tri (Hoan Kiem, Hanoi), one of the first cardholders: “When I was introduced this card, I decided to issue immediately, because BIDV Visa Platinum Cashback is not only the most modern card on the market but also meets my spending and cashback need. Cashback ratio of up to 6% of transaction value is the highest among all cards I've used.”
The above examples show that contactless cards in particular and other modern payment methods in general not only help limit the virus spreading, but also are much more convenient than cash. Therefore, it is forecast that in the Industry 4.0, with the increasing awareness of consumers, contactless cards will develop rapidly and become a preferred trend of payment in the coming time.
For more information on BIDV Visa Paltinum Cashback, please click here
