Mastercard teams up with long-named places to promote quicker online payments
3 February 2025, 00:04
The Llanfairpwll community in north Wales will become one of the first in Europe to try out Mastercard’s time-saving technology.
A Welsh tourist hotspot famed for its ultra-long name will become one of the first communities in Europe to try out Mastercard’s new payments technology.
Mastercard is teaming up with some of the longest-named locations in Europe with a payment initiative which allows shoppers to pay with “one click”.
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch in Wales is one of the locations included.
Mastercard said it will be giving demonstrations of how the technology works to residents of the community in Anglesey, which is also known as Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, Llanfairpwll or Llanfair PG.
The payments provider said the Llanfairpwll community will become one of the first in Europe to try out the time-saving technology, which allows shoppers to pay without the need to share long card numbers with online retailers.
Mastercard said a secure process called “tokenisation” replaces the card number with random numbers, or tokens, for each transaction, which are meaningless if stolen. It added that this protects consumers from scammers as well as retailers from cybersecurity and data breach threats.
Consumers can register their card with click to pay on their banking app and look out for the click to pay icon at the checkout.
Local councillor Dyfed Wyn Jones said: “We’re proud of our heritage but also recognise the value of a good shortcut.”
Mastercard also plans to work with “click to pay capitals” in other locations in Europe, including Brandys nad Labem-Stara Boleslav in the Czech Republic and Westerhaar-Vriezenveensewijk in the Netherlands.
Its research indicates people take just under three minutes on average to enter their address and payment details when shopping online.
A survey of 2,000 people across the UK by 3Gem, commissioned by Mastercard, indicates nine in 10 (94%) shoppers pulled the plug on online purchases last year when they faced friction or unwelcome surprises at the checkout.
Simon Forbes, division president, UK and Ireland, Mastercard, said: “In just a few years, it has become second nature to tap your card to pay for something in store.
“Now it’s time to usher in the era of the one click online payment.”
