How Biometric Payments Are Making Mobile Transactions More Secure

Many security features are built into contactless payments to ensure only authorised customers can make payments using their cards.

But with more customers already moving away from contactless cards and choosing to pay using digital wallets like Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, biometric payments are becoming increasingly popular.

But what are biometric payments, and how do they work?

What are biometric payments?

Biometric payments require a customer’s physical characteristics to authorise and complete the transaction.

The most common form of biometric payment used today is fingerprint and facial recognition.

Just in the UK, more than a third of smartphone users use their fingerprint to authorise payments when using their smartphone.

Facial recognition is slightly newer, but it's becoming more popular as more modern smartphones use facial recognition to unlock a customer’s phone.

Benefits of biometric payments

Although biometric payments are still relatively new, there are several benefits to accepting them (which many businesses already do if they accept digital payments like Apple Pay, Samsung Pay or Google Pay)

Some of the main benefits include:

Improved payment security

Biometric payments are highly secure because they require a physical characteristic of the customer to authorise the payment (like a fingerprint). This makes it almost impossible for a scammer to make a payment using a stolen biometric device.

Biometric payments are more convenient

Around two-thirds of customers around the world are now using digital payments to make purchases in-store using their smartphones or other devices.

Because most biometric payments are currently processed using a smartphone, it makes them highly convenient for customers. They don’t need to carry a payment card because all their payment information is already stored on their phone.

Biometric payments are fast

Biometric payments work just the same way contactless card payments work. The customer simply holds their payment device near to the card machine with their recognised fingerprint in the right place, and the payment will be processed instantly.

Higher contactless spending limits

While the new £100 limit on contactless cards has made payments more accessible, biometric payments (if used for digital payments like Apple Pay) are even more accessible.

That’s because Apple and similar digital payment providers don’t set any contactless spending limits, although individual retailers may set their own limits when using this type of payment.

Will biometric payments become more popular?

Payment technology is changing and developing all the time.

With digital payments and e-wallets already becoming more popular, especially among younger customers, biometric payments will likely increase in popularity.

As we’ve said, the good news for most merchants who are already accepting digital contactless payments is that they already have the technology to accept biometric payments.

This means there’s nothing more to do.