Credit cards technology: forget contactless, this one has it’s own screen!
Everyone wonders what the next big thing will be in the consumer financial world. Contactless payment has been the big thing recently and with its ease of use, it’s not hard to see why. Another option has now come to the table in the form of a Mastercard with a built in keyboard and LCD screen. Yep, you read that right, a keyboard and screen on your credit card!
In partnership with Standard Chartered Bank, Mastercard have launched the interesting item in Singapore to test the waters. At the moment it’s in its infancy stage, with bigger and better features planned for future revisions, however I’ll give you a quick run-down of what you can expect on the current iteration of the well known plastic payment solution!
- Touch sensitive keypad
- 6 digit LCD display
- One time use code to verify each use, similar to the authentican fobs handed out by banks
- Ability to use online and instores
One of the best features of this technology is that it makes it impossible for criminals and data thieves to make use of stolen credit card information without having the card in their hands. This will do 2 things in the long run, both of which will greatly benefit everyone using the technology:
- There will be less of a risk of having money disappear from your account due to identity theft
- Lower transaction fees on payments due to banks not seeing as many fraudulent / risky transactions in their networks
On the subject of benefits, let’s move on to what we can expect from future versions of this next generation payment card! There is already talk of being able to view your balance directly on the card, which would be a bonus for the vast majority of people that want to check in on how much money they have left in their accounts whilst on the move and away from telephone/internet banking. There are also plans for customers with specific cards, to be able to check how many loyalty / reward points they have with the specific vendor, another handy feature for those of us that love to stay loyal to stores and rack up points for future expenditures! Finally, one that I’m excited for myself. The ability to view recent transactions directly on your card. This is something would be extremely handy in various situations and would allow the end user to see where their money has gone and check if payments have gone out of their accounts whilst on the move.
It’s not brand new technology by any means, however it’s only now being brought to the end user on a larger scale. Many will pose the question, “Is it too late?” seeing as contactless payment technology is being phased in and used in more and more systems (Google being a big advocate of the technology) such as smartphones, which are massive items in most people’s lives now. Chances are it is too late, however these announcements and developments will no doubt spur on the companies behind contactless technology to speed up and further develop intuitive ways of paying for our everyday lives.