In the context of the rapid spread of coronavirus infection in Russia, people go to any lengths not to get infected. Some wear a mask for this, completely without thinking about its leaks, others try – for nothing – not to touch their face so as not to transfer the virus to the mucous membrane, and still others – stuff themselves with placebos and others. Nevertheless, all these methods of protection are rather compromise, being rather half measures. Therefore, I decided to tell you how to reduce the chances of infection by using contactless payment services like Samsung Pay and Google Pay. After all, they allow you not to touch not only cash, but even not to crawl with your card through the terminal, significantly increasing the chance of staying healthy.
Google Pay is the most common payment service on Android
Contactless payment services are a real salvation in the context of the spread of the coronavirus. It is clear that they will not protect you from infection if someone sneezes on you, but, in any case, thanks to them, you will not be able to touch potential carriers of infection. After all, Samsung Pay, Google Pay and other services, in addition to protecting our privacy by encrypting the data of the original card from which payment is made, also allow us not to perform rather dangerous actions in the current situation.
Ways of contracting coronavirus in stores
If you pay in cash or by card, you are doing quite dangerous actions by touching objects that are most likely to carry a virus, namely:
Contactless payment replaces five actions at the checkout at once
- Cash payment;
- Reception of change;
- Payment by credit card;
- Entering a pin code to confirm payment (they say that in some cases a pin code may be required even when paying through Google Pay, but I have not come across this);
- List to confirm payment.
Scientists have found that coronavirus can live in an open environment from several hours to several days. This largely depends on the material on which the infection fell, but – let's be honest with ourselves – even a few hours will be enough to transmit the infection. Therefore, cash, bank cards and payment terminals at the cash desks of stores, with which a large number of people interact during the day, are quite effective carriers of the infection.
Why contactless payments are better than cards and cash
I practically stopped using Google Pay at one time, and now I started again. You never know
And thanks to contactless payment services, all you need to do is activate the smartphone, bring it to the terminal without leaning close, and confirm the fact of payment by scanning your fingerprint. But does this technique have real indications or are they simply an invention of the author of this opus? Fortunately for you, there are. Despite the fact that the World Health Organization did not prohibit the use of cash, it recommended minimizing its use, because the life expectancy of the coronavirus on paper is 3-4 days, and on plastic – up to 9 days.
Even Rospotrebnadzor confirmed the advantage of contactless payments over all other payment methods. Specialists of the department said that after contact with cash, bank cards or payment terminals, you must thoroughly disinfect your hands, and until that moment you should never touch your face. Therefore, it is much more logical and safer to use contactless payments in this regard. However, this does not mean that after contact with a smartphone, you can rub your eyes, pick your nose, and even more so climb into your mouth. It's just a little safer.