Visa-Carrying NYC Subway Riders Now Mobile Payment Users

Visa's contactless payment system, payWave, now active on some subway lines and buses, along with MasterCard's similar PayPass system.

This week, some New York City subway and bus riders can start using mobile phones, including the iPhone, to pay for their trips. Here's Visa's new video showing Manhattan commuters using the contactless payment technology:

The pilot uses Visa's payWave contactless chip technology. DeviceFidelity created a small MicroSD chip that can be inserted in a mobile phone and an iPhone case containing a MicroSD chip (the iPhone doesn't have a memory card slot) that communicate with contactless readers at fare gates and on buses. Transit riders pay by holding their Visa payWave-enabled mobile phone or card near the designated reader at the fare gate.

Visa payWave as well as MasterCard PayPass cards and phones (MasterCard actually began this trial in June), are accepted at 28 stops along the Lexington subway line, at most PATH rail stations in New York and New Jersey, on several MTA bus lines in New York City, on select NJ TRANSIT bus routes in northern New Jersey and at Newark Liberty AirTrain Station in New Jersey.

In addition, more than 10,000 New York City cabs have installed Visa payWave terminals enabling tourists and locals to pay by waving their phone or card in front of terminals in the back seat of the cab.

Earlier this month, Visa, the LA Metro system and Ready Credit Corporation started a system wide commercial deployment offering riders a TAP ReadyCARD Visa Prepaid Card that incorporates the transit system's "TAP" fare application. Visa has been piloting similar mobile payment schemes in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Paris, Istanbul and London.