What is NFC and how does it work? | Ask Us Anything

Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of Ask Us Anything where we gather your questions from the internet and answer them. In today’s episode, what is NFC and what are its uses? And also, how long does it take for you to renew your passport now, since we all have to renew them online.

What is NFC?

Most of the smartphones that we see nowadays come with NFC also known as Near Field Communication. This technology allows you to transfer data between devices but it is limited to an extremely short range. But usually this technology only works if you put two devices against each other. 

For example, if you want to top up your new TNG card that comes with NFC support, you will have to place it directly onto the back of your smartphone in order for it to work. 

Besides that, contactless payments like Samsung Pay, Google Pay, and Apple Pay all use your smartphone’s NFC chip as well. Even credit and debit cards comes with NFC, you know the ones that you use or PayWave? Yeap, all of them uses NFC. 

How long does it take to renew your passport online?

So we are actually working on a video about this whole renewing your passport online thingy, so be sure to stay tuned for that.

But for now, we do not know the exact time for the whole process, because right after Rory applied and paid online, it appears that there’s some problem with his fingerprint and he needs to go to the immigration department to settle this issue next week. 

But according to one of our readers online, she seems to have a ton of problems with her renewal process. Apparently she did not receive any confirmation email from the immigration department. Instead, she went to the immigration department and waited there for 5 hours before she could collect her passport. 

For now I am not sure about the whole process yet, but do stay tuned for our next Trends video and maybe we can answer your questions by then!

What can you do with the new NFC TNG card?

So basically the new NFC TNG is just like your regular TNG card. The only difference now is that you have the ability to top up your card anywhere instead of going to a certain place to top up. Whatever your old tng can do, the new NFC TNG should also do the same. 

And with PayDirect, you can link your Touch ‘n Go Cards to your eWallets. If you add your TNG card to TNG ewallet, this means some TNG card transactions will be deducted from your eWallet instead of your physical card balance. PayDirect is supported at selected highways and car parks.

If you don’t want to use PayDirect and want to use the credit inside the card, you’ll have to unlink the card from TNG ewallet.