Discover Financial Services has begun issuing Discover Zip contactless credit cards and stickers to select cardholders. Further cards and stickers will be issued from January 2011 and cardholders interested in receiving one can now apply by simply calling 1-800-DISCOVER.

Discover is part of the Isis team, owned by AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA , which aims to introduce a national NFC service in the US. In January 2010, Discover published a detailed study that analysed the results of a contactless sticker trial at its Chicago headquarters and a facility in Salt Lake City. The study included detailed information on the kind of merchants at which users most wanted to be able to make payments with their stickers and the overall benefits that Discover identified.

“Currently, over 100,000 US merchant locations offer contactless readers that accept Zip transactions at the point-of-sale, including quick service restaurants, gas station and convenient stores, retailers and pharmacies, and public transit agencies,” says Discover. “The company’s payments business, Discover Network, has worked with merchants to certify contactless readers for many years, and was the first to test credit-based contactless stickers. Issuers, merchants, and acquirers can benefit from Discover Zip with increased transaction volume and customer loyalty.

“We put a high bar on value to the customer, and are always evaluating technology solutions that make things faster, safer, and more convenient for our cardmembers,” Mark Scarborough, senior vice president of cardmember marketing at Discover, explains. “Given how tied consumers are to their mobile devices, we know they will appreciate the tremendous value and convenience Discover Zip contactless cards and stickers provide.”

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