TRANSACTION AND QUEUEING times are set to be reduced as more and more contactless payment terminals make their way to Ireland.

Sage Pay today announced that 6,000 of these terminals are now operational in Ireland which should result in consumers having to carry less cash while at the same time reducing the security risks associated with using cards.

Customers who wish to use the new terminals are limited to spending €15 in a single transaction. Once a customer spends a maximum of €45 across any number of retail outlets they will automatically be asked for their pin to prove that the card that they are using is actually theirs.

Sean Wilson from Sage Pay said that the terminals would reduce the “top-heavy cost to retailers” of having to deal with low value payments on a daily basis.

He added:

There is also a huge value to customers, recent figures report that Irish customers spend 11.2 minutes queuing daily to pay for low-value purchases. Contactless payments help eliminate these lengthy queues.

More than 2.4 million Laser cards are due to be replaced with Visa Debit Contactless cards by the end of 2013.

Read: Scammers targeting shops in attempt to get card details >

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