Disneyland Paris to test NFC and contactless cards from October

Customers of Crédit Mutuel and CIC banks in the Paris region can take part in a trial of both NFC and contactless card payments due to take place at the resort from October.

DISNEYLAND PARIS: Testing NFC and contactless payments
DISNEYLAND PARIS: Testing NFC and contactless payments

Disneyland Paris is to begin testing the use of NFC phones and contactless cards to make payments in the resort’s shops and restaurants, beginning on 3 October 2009.

The trial is open to Disneyland Paris annual pass holders who are a customer of French banks Crédit Mutuel or CIC and who have both a valid bank card and an account held at a branch in the Paris region.

A total of 100 NFC phone testers and 1,000 contactless card testers are being sought and, as an incentive to sign up and to then use their phone or card, testers are being offered a 25% discount at Disneyland shops and a 20% discount at restaurants whenever they use their NFC phone or contactless card.

To sign up, qualifying customers simply follow a link provided on the Disneyland Paris website from where they can complete an application form on their bank’s website.

Those opting for the NFC test will be issued with a Sagem My700x Contactless NFC phone free of charge by mobile virtual network operator NRJ Mobile, which is owned by Crédit Mutuel CIC. The phone is a pre-production model based on the Sagem My700x, and users will be required to return it at the end of the test.

All payments made with the phone will be charged directly to the user’s Crédit Mutuel or CIC bank card and, if they wish to also use it to make calls, the phones come with €20 credit that can then be topped up in the usual way at all top up merchants across France.

Interestingly, the Disneyland Paris trial will not be using the recently launched NFC Forum N-Mark symbol to identify points of sale equipped to handle NFC and contactless transactions. Instead, it is using a simple black and white symbol based on waves radiating from a transmitter.

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