Are contactless payments secure?

Among the many new payment methods that now exist, contactless payments have become increasingly popular, particularly since the start of the Covid-19 crisis. This is because they’re very easy to use: all you need to do is hold your card close to the card reader, wait for confirmation that the payment has gone through, and you’re done. It’s no longer necessary to enter your PIN. But are these payments really secure?

No risk of paying twice

A contactless payment card contains a special chip that allows it to communicate with the cardreader. Whenever you make a payment, a unique code is created and exchanged between the cardreader and the card. The code can only be used once, so your account cannot be debited twice, even if you hold the card close to the cardreader for longer than necessary.

Maximum of €50 per payment

In addition, contactless payments are limited to €50 each. If you want to pay a larger amount, you must enter your PIN. Similarly, if you make several contactless payments in the same day, you must enter your PIN when their total value exceeds €100.

So contactless payments are just as secure as chip-and-PIN payments, but if you want to continue entering your PIN for every transaction, you can simply disable the contactless payment function.

About Ask Your Bank

At BNP Paribas Fortis, we want to help you gain a greater understanding when it comes to managing your money, which is why we asked more than 1,000 Belgians what their main money-related questions and concerns are. With the Ask Your Bank series, we aim to make your life easier by addressing those matters in a fully transparent way: another example of Positive Banking.