Tap to phone (SoftPOS)
Accepting a contactless card or wallet directly on a standard phone, using its NFC hardware, with no separate terminal. It removes the device cost and suits low-volume or occasional acceptance; what it does not remove is the merchant account behind it, and it inherits the phone's battery and connectivity rather than a terminal's.
Why it matters to a merchant
Genuinely useful for a specific shape of business — occasional acceptance, a second position at a busy counter, a market weekend — and routinely oversold as a replacement for a terminal. The trade is that it inherits a phone's battery, a phone's connectivity and a phone's tendency to be needed for something else, which is the whole reason dedicated terminals still exist.
Read more: Choosing a card terminal
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Related terms
In this section: At the counter