Contactless - How Far Are We From a Tipping Point in the US?

Most observers note that the eventual success of mobile payments for face-to-face purchases depends upon the rollout of new POS devices that support contactless payments.

Yesterday, Pulse released a summary of results from its 2008 Debit Issuer Study. Included for the first time were results on three areas of emerging payments: contactless, mobile banking and mobile payments.

The survey results for contactless found that 10 percent of respondents currently offer contactless debit cards with another 35 percent saying they plan to introduce contactless in the future. Of the 10 percent that currently offer contactless, 24 percent of their cardbase is contactless, on average. The survey reported that the "key barriers to contactless adoption are low merchant acceptance, unfavorable cost/benefit ratios and low demand."

A different story seems to be emerging in the UK where, as we reported recently, there's a significant rollout of contactless already underway in London.