President Chain Store Corp., which operates the 7-Eleven convenience stores, has cooperated with Chinatrust Commercial Bank to launch a cobranded contactless credit card on April 1. The contactless card, which has an embedded chip that lets users wave it near a reading panel instead of swiping it, is called “icashwave.”

The card can function as an electronic wallet for purchases below NT$500 and can be used as a credit card for larger amounts. The card is an extension of the icash payment service launched in 2004 by the 7-Eleven stores, the nation’s largest convenience store chain.

President Chain Store Corp. has completed relevant systems at all of its 4,300 7-Eleven stores around the island to facilitate the official use of the versatile icashwave cards.

Meanwhile, the FamilyMart convenience store chain has cooperated with Taishin International Bank to issue cobranded smart cards. Their cards feature a built-in electronic wallet, a credit card and Easy card, and paying with the card can spare the trouble of getting change and accelerate payment procedures.

In addition, the smart cards can have value stored and accept credit transactions, allowing consumers with no cash on hand to purchase small-value goods.

Chang Jen-deng, president of FamilyMart, said that based on two months of trial-operation of the cobranded smart cards, the company found that the average spending by cardholders was some 10 to 15 percent higher than that of consumers without the cards.

Another convenience store chain, Hi-Life, has also started to cooperate with local banks to issue MasterCard PayPass cards in October 2006, allowing consumers to use the cards to make purchases at a total of 1,260 chain stores around the island.

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