Tap to Pay
Also called Tap to Pay on iPhone, softPOS, contactless on phone
Tap to Pay is technology that turns a standard iPhone or Android phone into a contactless card reader, letting a business accept cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay by holding the customer’s card or device against the phone. No additional hardware is required.
It uses the NFC chip already in the phone, with card data encrypted in a secure element so the merchant app never sees the full number.
It removes the two costs that historically kept small businesses out of card acceptance: buying hardware and being tied to a rental contract for it.
Contactless limits are set by the card schemes and the issuer, not by the phone. Above the limit the customer verifies on their own device or via the app’s PIN entry.
Why it matters to you
If you take fewer than a few hundred payments a month, there is now no financial reason to own a card machine at all.
Work out what you’re actually paying.
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