Eckoh and Worldpay perform Apple Pay payment via telephone

This proof of concept (PoC) by Eckoh and innovation partner Worldpay, will enable telephone based payments to be taken via Apple Pay. Possible use cases range from high volume call centre payments, telephone ordering services or retailer based telephone payments.

According to Eckoh’s representatives, this new payment process is completely intuitive to the customer. Whilst the customer is on the phone to an agent, a message is sent to their device linking to their Apple Pay app. The customer is asked to confirm the payment on their device, which is convenient and secure. The contact centre then receives an alert confirming that the payment has been made.

Regarding security concerns, the innovation adds an additional layer of security for both consumers and retailers. Card-not-present fraud is increasing with data from Financial Fraud Action UK showing a 17% rise in 2015, but it can often be an overlooked part of a retailers’ payment strategy. The ability for callers to authorise payments via Apple Pay is more secure than a traditional telephone transaction. The card is tokenised by the Apple system and the device-based finger print authentication is utilised. This means that the payment will be processed as a biometric secured transaction similar to an Apple payment in a physical store, as opposed to an unauthenticated ‘card holder not present’ transaction that is normally initiated by telephone payments.

The solution can address the call centre environment as the customer’s credit or debit card data is never shared with the contact centre. This takes away the requirement for PCI DSS, ensuring the best levels of payment security and PCI DSS de-scoping.

Eckoh is continuing to develop Apple Pay functionality with the intention of releasing it as part of its overall contact centre payments capability in the near future.