Public transport | HSL’s CEO on the new payment method: “We should not encourage the use of contactless payment”

Helsinki deputy of the CEO of regional transport (HSL). Vesa Silfver hopes that people will not switch from the mobile application to contactless payment users. He commented on it Helsinki News on Saturday.

“I can say frankly that it’s better for us if people use the app and don’t switch to contactless payment,” says Silfver.

According to him, HSL intends to guide customers to prefer the application by means of pricing. In practice, ordering a ticket with contactless payment therefore becomes more expensive than the application.

Contactless payment means that the customer can pay for the ticket by showing a bank or credit card to the card reader.

Pricing logic Silfver justifies HS by saying that contactless payment causes the municipal corporation a bigger bill than the application.

The cost of paying for the cheapest single ticket is about 0.7 percent in the app and 1.5 percent with contactless payment.

Local payment is more expensive than the app, because credit card companies charge for purchases made with their cards. The payments of the local payment service provider are also more expensive than in the application.

“That’s why we shouldn’t encourage the use of contactless payment.”

HSL’s goal is actually the opposite: if someone tries using public transport with contactless payment and gets excited about it, we try to entice him to become an app customer, so he saves money, says Silfver.

It is not yet known how much more expensive using contactless payment will be for customers. Pricing is to be decided in October.

Multi in public transport in other European cities, contactless payment has been commonplace for a long time. In the capital region, the project has been badly delayed.

Now HSL is replacing old travel card readers with new devices that support the contactless payment feature. There are more than four thousand card readers that can be renewed.

What’s the point of introducing a huge number of devices that support contactless payment and at the same time hoping that customers won’t use it?

“We hope that it will bring new customers. Although those who have caught a taxi at night, they realize that with contactless payment, you can easily get home by bus by flashing your card. Tourists can use contactless payment,” says Silfver.

According to him, experiences from other countries show that contactless payment has increased the number of new customers precisely because of the ease of the payment method.

“Yes, it pays for itself.”