Shell customers will be able to pay indoors at all 2,200 Shell petrol stations in Germany in a fast and convenient way with their contactless Visa card, or a NFC compatible smartphone. This also includes payments with contactless V PAY debit cards. The changeover to new contactless terminals will be completed by early summer of 2014. For contactless payments, cardholders simply hold their contactless Visa card or smartphone in front of the terminal. Up to an amount of €25 customers can pay contactless or mobile without entering a PIN or providing a signature; for higher value payments, the cardholder authorizes the transaction with his PIN or signature. This new, customer-friendly service allows Shell to prevent queues at the check-out. Especially the purchase of low-value goods at highly frequented petrol stations can be processed in a much quicker way.

"Shell stations not only offer high quality fuel, but also products for daily use. In the near future, our customers will be able to pay with Visa contactless cards in a convenient, fast and easy way when buying petrol as well as coffee, drinks, snacks or magazines. Thereby, queues at the counter will be shorter and our service quality will further increase", says Jörg Wienke, Head of Shell's Retail business in Germany.

In Europe, 59 million contactless Visa cards have been issued to consumers. Since 2007 the infrastructure for contactless payments with Visa in Europe has been continuously extended. Ottmar Bloching, General Manager of Visa Europe in Germany, sees a big potential for the German market: "This is a huge step forward for the acceptance of contactless and mobile payments with Visa in Germany. We are convinced that many customers at Shell petrol stations will make use of this new service and profit from it."

Contactless payments with Visa are based on the Visa payWave technology, which has been implemented in the new generation terminals that Shell is introducing. The acceptance will be enabled by the acquirer Barclays. "Our experience with contactless cards and smartphones in the UK market shows that customers value this way of paying, and we're happy to contribute to the success of this payment evolution in the German market, together with such strong partners as Shell and Visa", said Paulette Rowe, Managing Director of Barclaycard Global Payment Acceptance.