THE SIMON COMMUNITY will become the first charity in Ireland to accept on-the-street contactless payments as donations today.
This facility is available on some payment cards, and allows transactions to be carried out by tapping the card against a reader.
Payments are generally limited to €15.
Fundraisers for the Simon Community will be carrying these readers today and tomorrow on Dublin’s Grafton Street as part of the charity’s Carolathon -24 hours of carol singing.
“We still very much welcome coins,” Sam McGuinness said.
“However bucket donations require counting, bagging and a higher level of security, making card payment more cost efficient for our fundraising events.”
The initiative has been supported by the Central Bank’s National Payments Plan.
This aims to make savings of €1 billion annual to the Irish economy by increasing the use of electronic forms of payment such as debit cards and electronic banking.
Contactless payments are tipped to rapidly take over from traditionally cash or even chip-and-pin transactions in future.
Apple has included a feature that allows users to make these payments using a Near Field Communication chip in the latest models of iPhone.
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