Page 124 - Pay Magazine s2014

vertical opportunities
snapshot:
Prepaid Transit Cards
transit card programs come in many flavors—including closed- and open-loop, contact and contactless and mobile apps —to meet the needs of transit systems and their customers. Here we aggregate facts, stats and interesting perspectives
on this fascinating prepaid vertical market.
The contactless, closed-loop FAREPAY card, a partnership of the Utah Transit Authority, InComm and Vix Technology, has tallied 712,028
boardings using the FAREPAY system from October 2013 through mid-July 2014, on a card base of 14,442.
the case for contactless
Contactless prepaid transit will become more popular, especially in densely populated cities, according to analysts, and could incorporate technologies, such as NFC, Bluetooth low energy (BLE) and 2D barcodes. Contactless is a conve- nient way for passengers to pay, according to MasterCard, because using contactless-enabled cards and devices is quicker than swiping a card or digging for change.
contactless transit cards in the u.s., singapore and south korea*
Of commuters surveyed:
66% in the U.S.
83% in Singapore
88% in South Korea would use contactless transit cards to pay.
72%
of commuters in the combined locations wish there were one card to use for all local mass-transit systems.
2 full days (50 hrs/yr.)
is what U.S. commuters estimate saving by using contactless for transit.
contactless growth in the u.k. attributed to commuters
Earlier this year, Visa Europe announced holders of contactless Visa cards in the U.K. made 94.3 million contactless purchases in 2013, a surge from the 25 million made the previous year, with the payment network. Visa Europe attri- buted the strong growth largely to the spread
of tap-to-pay systems on London mass transit, including “tens of millions” of contactless payments for buses.
*source: MasterCard Transit Survey conducted by Harris Interactive in the U.S., Singapore and South Korea.
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