What are EMV and NFC payments?

There are many financial and fintech acronyms that are bandied about these days, two of which are EMV and NFC.

Although they may appear rather similar at first sight, these are some differences regarding how these two payment types are made.

In this blog post, we explore what they are.

EMV payments

EMV, which stands for Europay, Mastercard, Visa, is a security standard and payment technology that is connected to the chip in your credit cards.

This chip processes data securely, sending specific codes from the card to a card terminal, which is then read, and processed, ensuring that a payment is made securely.

Although a chip may be inserted in a card machine, many cards these days are contactless and also use NFC and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) to make contactless payments. 

EMV payments are considered much safer than payments made with a magstripe on a card because of the increased layers of security and protection which are embedded in the physical chip on the card. 

As for fees, these are considered card-present transactions and will be charged as such.

NFC payments

Closely related to RFID, NFC stands for Near Field Communication. 

NFC is a communications technology that enables contactless EMV payments.

How does this work?

Whether you have a smartphone, smartwatch, or another smart payment device, your card details are preloaded on your device and this enables you to simply hover it near a payment terminal for the payment to be processed.

Because of the increased technology and tokenisation when it comes to smart payments, NFC communication between your smart device and the card terminal is considered a safe method of paying.  

When it comes to fees, payments made with NFC technology are considered card-present transactions, although they are card-not-present transactions for in-app purchases and the according rates will apply. 

Now that you know a bit more about EMV and NFC payments, you can increase your awareness and knowledge when it comes to making purchases.