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Wells Fargo begins rollout of contactless cards for payments, ATM transactions

April 2, 2019

Wells Fargo & Co. has announced the launch of contactless consumer credit and debit cards that will allow customers to tap and pay at millions of retail stores and public transit hubs and, later this year, initiate transactions at Wells Fargo ATMs.

Starting this week, the bank will issue the contactless cards to customers who open a new consumer credit card account.

Existing credit cardholders will receive contactless cards when their current cards expire. Debit cards will be rolled out starting this summer.

Later this year, the bank will roll out contactless functionality at its 13,000 ATM locations nationwide, allowing cardholders to tap to initiate a withdrawal or other transaction at the machines.

The tap-and-pay functionality is based on the same NFC technology — introduced in late 2017 — that allows customers to initiate an ATM transaction using a mobile wallet.

"At Wells Fargo, our goal is to make the payments experience as seamless as possible for our customers, which is why we are so pleased to offer contactless credit cards for simple tap-to-pay checkouts," Beverly Anderson, head of Wells Fargo Cards and Retail Services, said in the announcement.

Anderson cited statistics from Visa showing that 78 of the top 100 merchants, measured by transaction volume, will soon offer contactless payment as an option.

The bank said its tap-and-pay rollout comes ahead of several major transit system rollouts of contactless technology, including an 18-month pilot of contactless by the NYC Metropolitan Transit Authority, which operates the city’s bus and subway system.