Make Transactions At Shops By Just Tapping Your Phone; Check Details

Modern technology enables users to conduct transactions without swiping card details or even scanning the QR code at a point-of-sale (POS) terminal of a merchant. You can use Tap and Pay feature enabled on any UPI application such as Google Pay or Phone Pay. This technology works using Near Field Communication technology using radio waves and does not require even an internet connection. To effectively conduct NFC mobile payments, both the payer's smartphone and the payment terminal at the shop must be equipped with NFC technology.

Most smartphones are now equipped with built-in NFC chips, and, further merchants need NFC-compatible point-of-sale (POS) terminals to accept NFC payments.

Further, NFC mobile payments need mobile wallet applications or wallets installed in your UPI applications on your smartphones to perform transactions. These wallets are in turn connected to another hardware component called a secure component. In the NFC technology, there is a hardware component called a secure element that stores your credit card or debit card details, or tokenisation details and protects them from unauthorised access or tampering.

How To Use Tap & Pay

Even if you do not have a contactless debit card or credit card, you can use Tap & Pay using your phone using NFC. Go to your net banking application, check your card settings and ensure that you have enabled the contactless payments feature. 

Make sure that NFC is turned on in your phone settings to conduct transactions using radio waves. As a preliminary step, open Settings, and in the search bar type 'NFC'.  Tap and turn on NFC If you can find NFC. If you can't find NFC try downloading any safe NFC-enabling application from the Google Play store.

Enter the Tap to Pay section from your UPI application's home screen. You will see a list of all your saved cards. Select the card you want to activate for Tap and Pay. Enter your card details on the next screen if intimated and authorise the feature using OTP. These are preliminary steps which need not be repeated when performing the Tap and Pay transactions.

Now to perform Tap & Pay, turn on your phone screen, by unlocking your phone. You do not need to open the Google Pay application. 

All you need to do is tap your phone, just like you would tap your contactless physical card at the terminal. Hold the back of your phone close to the payment reader at the PoS terminal.

 Google Pay app will open automatically and to confirm the amount to be paid, tap Proceed. If payment is successful, a blue checkmark shows on the screen if you are using G Pay. If the feature is not working, try holding the phone in a different way, as your phone's NFC antenna could be located near the top or bottom of the device. Hold your phone closer to the payment reader and hold it there for a few extra seconds.

In India, you can send a maximum of Rs 5,000 using Tap & Pay transactions and it is not required for your smartphone to be connected to the internet.