Here’s how the card payment system will change in Hungary

More and more stores accept credit cards in Hungary, and ‘contactless’ cards are getting even more popular: 60% of the stores where paying with credit card is possible lets you pay by tapping your card on the terminal. Penzcentrum.hu was informed about the time when PayPass or PayWawe cards will be accepted everywhere in Hungary.

According to the Hungarian National Bank’s (MNB) statistics, 6 out of 10 terminals accepts contactless cards; as Hungary has 99.000 POS terminals, this means that 59.000 places accept PayPass cards.

Penzcentrum.hu was informed by Gábor Szabó, accountable manager of the Ingenico Group in Hungary, that every restaurant, store, or gas station can decide if they would like to accept credit cards for themselves, but those who do automatically receive terminals that accept contactless cards. According to Szabó, most banks and stores have already made steps to switch to the new technology, and contactless cards will be accepted everywhere in Hungary in 1 or 2 years.

One of the many advantages of these cards is that it makes paying faster, because we don’t need to search for cash. Furthermore, we never have to give our card out of our hands; even if a PIN code is required (for payments above 5000 HUF), we still don’t have to hand the card over to the cashier, and that minimises the chance for any unauthorised people to get a hold of our personal information, such as the code on the back of the card.

Although the number of terminals that accept contactless cards has been increasing in the past few years and it’s almost 60.000 now, the number of ATMs stayed the same; it’s around 4800. Another advantage of cards over cash is that even if we lose our credit card, the bank can simply block it, hindering any unauthorised person from using it.

Cover photo: MasterCard Facebook page

Copy editor: bm

Source: penzcentrum.hu