38% of Facebook friends voted they rather use the plastic credit cards than pay with their NFC phones

I raised a Facebook question yesterday asking my friends and the entire Facebook universe if they would like link their credit cards to their NFC phone and make payments with that NFC phone. The link to the Facebook Question can be found at http://on.fb.me/frpCLA .

38% or 23 out of 59 voted “no” and would rather use their plastic credit cards to make payment. 29% voted “yes” as they would like mobile phone to do everything. 25% said they would link their credit cards to their NFC phone and pay with that phone, but still had security concerns. The remaining 4 said a flat no to doing it as they have security concerns.

Interestingly, one said he has not heard of NFC phones.

Another friend who participated in the recent NFC phone trial with Starhub and ezlink said he received a funny look from MacDonald service staff when he paid with his NFC phone. However, he did highlight that there were no updates after the trial from both Starhub and ezlink.

As can be seen, that adoption to link credit cards to NFC phone might be high, but the payment operator would have to focus on the security of paying via such devices.

Saying that it is secure is not enough. They have to highlight why it is secure or the steps taken to make it secure.

There is a scenario that needs to be addressed though. Say you are in a sit down restaurant and would like to pay with your NFC mobile phone. Do you hand over your mobile phone to the service staff to make the payment? What if the service staff dropped the phone, would the establishment be responsible for the damages?

Or will the payment operator come up with a wireless RFID reader which they currently have for credit cards? Would this raise the cost to the retailer to rent such equipment?

Lots of questions and one can only hope that the players looking to make NFC payment a reality man up and address these questions directly.