Hypobank Lenzburg Offers Contactless Payment Debit Card

Until now, contactless payments in Switzerland could only be made using NFC-enabled credit cards. For the first time, Swiss consumers can also make contactless payments via NFC using a debit card.

The first Swiss contactless debit card is being issued by the Hypothekarbank Lenzburg in cooperation with the Swiss SIX Group. The card in question is not the Maestro card from MasterCard, which is popular in Switzerland. Instead, the bank chose the less widely used V-Pay card from Visa as the base for its contactless debit card offer.

For the first time, Swiss consumers can use a debit card to make contactless payments. However, NFC payments without a PIN are limited to 40 francs per transaction.

The transaction limit will likely be raised in the not-too-distant future, because contactless payments are increasing in popularity in spite of ongoing security concerns.

At Migros, for example, 20 percent of credit card payments are already made using contactless technology.

The moneyland.ch team