NFC payment.

In plain English

An NFC payment is a transaction completed over near-field communication, a radio standard that only works within a few centimeters. In a card, the chip is powered by the reader's own field and answers with a one-time cryptogram. In a phone or watch, a secure element or its software equivalent stores a network token rather than your real card number, and the device requires a fingerprint, a face scan, or a passcode before it will transmit anything. The merchant's terminal treats both as card-present transactions with the protections that carries.

01Why it matters

Because a phone wallet transmits a token and requires the device lock to be cleared first, a lost phone is a much smaller payment risk than a lost card, provided that lock is switched on.

02The math, step by step

Say your phone wallet holds three cards. A thief who takes the phone but cannot pass the biometric spends nothing. The same thief holding your physical contactless card can tap it repeatedly until an issuer limit or your report stops the run.

Illustrative example. The amounts here are hypothetical, chosen to show how the math works, not real quoted rates or figures.

03What this is NOT

04Receipts

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