RFID in the Goodie Bag

Because the BRIT Awards prepaid cards were issued anonymously—that is, MasterCard could not match the recipient's name to the card, or to a MasterCard account that person may already own—the cards are not reloadable. (They'll also expire at the end of April.) But MasterCard expects that once event attendees have a chance to try out the prepaid PayPass cards, they'll be more apt to apply for one of their own.

In the United Kingdom, the PayPass RFID functionality works only for purchases of £10 or less. For higher-value transactions, consumer must insert the cards (which also contain a contact-based chip) and key in a personal identification number, used to authenticate the payment card under the EMV payment security scheme used throughout the United Kingdom.

"We are still gathering the feedback from the BRIT Awards," Steeley says, "but initial feedback is encouraging." The main benefit of RFID, over using a card's magnetic stripe card in a payment terminal, is that it enables faster transaction speeds. When event guests are waiting in a queue at a concession stand, time is an important commodity. What's more, small-value transactions, such as drinks bought at an event, are often made with cash, so MasterCard and other credit card organizations would want to transfer those cash transactions to payments made with RFID-enabled cards.

According to Steeley, MasterCard currently has many more event-specific, prepaid PayPass promotion events in the works. The more event venues it works with to launch these promotions, the more will be outfitted with payment terminals that can accept the cards. "We have some really interesting plans for driving acceptance in these types of locations," he says.

MasterCard worked with prepaid card issuer Altair Financial to issue the PayPass cards for both the Fashion Rocks and BRIT Award events.

In the United States, The Nederlander Organization has installed payment terminals that accept Visa's payWave RFID cards, to help make concession sales at the eight Broadway theaters it operates speedier (see RFID Lands a Role on Broadway). And Florida's Dolphin Stadium is one of many U.S. sports venues outfitted with payment terminals that can process RFID-enabled credit or debit cards (see Dolphin Stadium Kicks Off a Technology Revolution).