In 2023, according to data from Mastercard, 50.4% of shoppers in Spain used mobile phones to make contactless payments—a 70% increase over the previous year. Since then, the number of customers in Spain using contactless payments has continued to rise. For example, according to the Bank of Spain, the use of contactless payments went up by 18% in the first half of 2024.

While younger customers make up the bulk of this technology’s users, it’s steadily gaining popularity with other demographics. This could be because of contactless payments’ many benefits, which might explain why more and more businesses in Spain accept them.

In this article, we cover why businesses choose to offer this option and what’s required to implement it.

What’s in this article?

• What are contactless payments?
  
• How does contactless technology work?
  
• The benefits of contactless payments
  
• How to offer contactless payments to customers in Spain
  
• FAQs about contactless payments in Spain
  

What are contactless payments?

Contactless payments are monetary transactions processed without inserting a credit or debit card into a reader. In the case of digital wallets, a physical card isn’t required for payments.

In Spain, contactless payments are regulated under Royal Decree Law 19/2018 on payment services. This decree implements Directive (EU) 2015/2366 on payment services in the internal market, which specifically mentions contactless payments in item 96 of the preamble.

How does contactless technology work?

This type of contactless payment is supported by near-field communication (NFC) technology, which transfers data between devices wirelessly. The cards or digital wallets send the information, and the card terminals receive it. With contactless payments, the point of sale (POS) system does not receive the information from the card, only the card terminal does. This is an important distinction because, in Spain, the terms “POS” and “card terminal” are often used interchangeably even though they differ.

For the transmission to take place, the card’s built-in chip must have a short-range wireless connection allowing it to receive power. In this case, the card terminal is the device sending power through an electromagnetic field.

The benefits of contactless payments

The speed of contactless payments clearly benefits both businesses and customers, but there are additional specific benefits for each of those two groups:

For businesses

• Greater customer loyalty: Offering your customers’ preferred payment methods promotes repeat purchases, and contactless payments are becoming increasingly popular. In the first half of 2024, over 25.8 billion contactless transactions were processed in Europe—a 13.2% increase relative to the prior year.
  
• Increased productivity: Compared to methods such as cash, contactless payments accelerate the customer flow and save time at the checkout stage, boosting the business’s productivity.
  
• Enhanced brand image: Offering a relatively modern (first introduced in 1995), more hygienic, and eco-friendly payment method improves the brand’s image.
  

For customers

• Convenience: Contactless payments don’t require the card to be inserted into the reader. If the customer has a digital wallet, they can pay by simply holding their phone up to the reader.

• Security: Contactless payments use secure tokenization to encrypt card information.

• Personal identification number (PIN): In Spain, customers aren’t required to enter their PIN for contactless payments up to €50.

How to offer contactless payments to customers in Spain

It’s very simple for businesses to enable contactless NFC payments, as long as they use the right technology. Here’s a step-by-step guide:

Choose a provider

Select a payment service provider that supports contactless payments and doesn’t charge extra fees for using them. For example, Stripe charges the same fees for card payments and digital wallet payments, such as Apple Pay, which were used in 29% of online payments in Spain.

Install a card terminal

The card terminal should meet the following criteria:

• Compatible with NFC contactless payment technology
  
• Compliant with International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) 14443, the standard that outlines how devices should read information from NFC-enabled cards
  

The card terminal will read the card data and connect with your chosen payment service provider. In Spain, payment terminals have traditionally been provided by banks, but more and more businesses are now choosing bankless card terminals to avoid additional bank contracts. Stripe Terminal offers advanced card readers that accept card and digital wallet payments, such as the S700 or the BBPOS WisePOS E, and allow you to manage all your in-person and online payments through a single centralized location, Stripe’s payments platform.

Train your staff

Employees need to know how to use this payment method when customers request it. They should also be familiar with the decline codes the reader might display when a payment is declined.

Update your data terminal

You should update regularly to avoid service interruptions that could impact the internet connection and prevent payments from being processed.

FAQs about contactless payments in Spain

What cards can be used for contactless payments in Spain?

Debit cards, credit cards, and prepaid cards can all support contactless technology. According to data from Mastercard, these cards are used for contactless payments in Spain in 48.9%, 32.8%, and 26.3% of cases, respectively.

What is the maximum amount for contactless payments in Spain?

There is no defined maximum per-transaction amount for contactless payment. However, if a single purchase is more than €50 or if the total amount spent in a single day exceeds €150, customers are required to enter their card’s PIN.

What smartphones can be used for contactless payments?

Almost all smartphones can support contactless payments. This includes iPhone 6 and up and most Android devices. According to the National Commission on Markets and Competition (Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia), Android phones are used by 78.8% of people in Spain.

Any smartphone that’s NFC technology-enabled can be used for contactless payments, as long as the customer activates the feature and uses an app such as Google Pay or Apple Pay.

Are businesses required to ask for identification to receive contactless payments in Spain?

Businesses are required to ask for a customer’s identification before accepting a contactless payment only if the purchase includes items that can’t be sold to minors (e.g., tobacco, as stipulated in Law 28/2005).