Unattended payments: paying a machine

An unattended terminal reads chip and contactless cards and phone wallets, sometimes QR codes, and asks the issuer for approval in real time. Because nobody watches it, it carries its own protection: encryption of the card data at the reader, tokenization, anti-skimming readers, encrypted PIN pads and terminals that wipe themselves when they detect tampering, under PCI DSS and PCI PTS (Stripe). Fiserv adds point-to-point encryption and names car washes, parking and utilities as the most successful uses of its own unattended product (Fiserv).

For the girocard, the Deutsche Kreditwirtschaft approves unattended terminal types separately from attended ones. Its list of approved girocard terminals (in German) shows unattended models with contactless girocard, reservation of a maximum amount and offline-authorized reservations, the functions a fuel pump or charger needs when the final amount is not known at the start.

The EU Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2023/1804, sets the payment rules for public chargers. Since April 13, 2024, every newly installed DC charging point of 50 kW or more needs a card terminal or a contactless device that reads payment cards, and existing points of that size must be retrofitted by 2027 (electrive). Below 50 kW, other secure ways of ad hoc payment are allowed.

The European Commission accepts a static QR code if it is readable and the payment is secure, and one central terminal may serve several charging points at the same site, according to the same source. A contactless device may also take digital wallets.

A SoftPOS app on the operator's phone can replace a fixed reader where the volume is small, a phone wallet such as Apple Pay pays with a token and confirms with the phone's unlock, and network tokens keep stored cards working for operators that bill a customer account, as charging apps and parking apps do.

Finance Loop is the meeting place for people who build card acceptance in Germany, at the till and in machines: acquirers, terminal makers and network operators, charge point operators and the fintechs behind charging and parking apps. It connects the finance, IT and AI communities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, with events in Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin and Hamburg.

Visa is an event and network partner of Finance Loop. Frankfurt, where Finance Loop is built in collaboration with TechQuartier, is home to EURO Kartensysteme, which runs the girocard.

Payments taken by a self-service machine without staff: vending machines, parking meters, ticket machines, self-checkouts, fuel pumps, car washes, lockers and EV chargers.

At an attended terminal a cashier starts the payment and can check the customer. An unattended terminal runs on its own, so it needs stronger physical protection, remote monitoring and, for fuel or charging, a reservation of an amount before the service starts.

New public DC chargers of 50 kW or more must accept payment cards by a card reader or a contactless device since April 13, 2024, and existing ones of that size by 2027. Smaller chargers need some secure ad hoc payment option.

It reserves a maximum amount on the card first and books the actual amount when the service ends. The girocard approval list names this function, reservation of a maximum amount, for unattended terminals.