Phone Payment Glossary of Terms

It can be confusing when first learning about making payments with a phone, which is why I find most people don't start. Or, after they try the first time and fail, they give up never to return again. Hopefully this site and the knowledge presented here can help out with all of that. As I come across items that people don't understand in the phone payment world, I'll try to add and explain them here as simply as possible.

• NFC: Near-field Communication - NFC is a tech that uses radio frequencies over short distances to exchange data. So essentially, when you're holding your phone near an NFC antenna, the terminal and your phone communicate a virtual credit card number which is then used to process your payment.
  • PRO: Secure form of payment.
  • CON: Not accepted everywhere; doesn't always work smoothly if at all.
• MST: Magnetic Secure Transmission - With MST, your phone effectively spoofs being a swiped credit card at the payment terminal. By emitting magnetic pulses from the device, the terminal reads these pulses just like a swiped card and processes the transaction just the same.
  • PRO: Secure form of payment (virtual card numbers are used); Accepted practically anywhere you can swipe your own card.
  • CON: Not accepted everywhere; Currently limited to Samsung devices.