Wells Fargo Transitions to Contactless Credit and Debit Cards for Consumers

Today, Wells Fargo announced they will be launching contactless debit and credit cards for consumers. The bank is currently transitioning its credit cardholders to contactless cards, and will make the move with debit cardholders beginning in the summer.

As of this week, new Wells Fargo credit card applicants will receive the contactless versions of their cards. Existing cardholders will receive the updated model when their cards expire.

In the summer, debit cardholders will be able to “tap” their cards at most of the bank’s 13,000 ATMs nationwide. Over 10,000 Wells Fargo ATMs currently accept digital wallets, which also utilize near field communication (NFC). The remaining ATMs will be enhanced with this technology later this year.

According to a study from Juniper Research, contactless payments are projected to represent 34% of all transactions in the United States by 2022. To put that growth into proper perspective, contactless payments only made up 2% of transactions in 2017.

Visa projects there will be over 100 million Visa contactless cards by the end of this year. This is largely due to Chase’s transition to contactless cards, which began in December 2018. The Wells Fargo contactless cards will also be backed by Visa.