Last month MasterCard rolled out a new credit card with touch-sensitive buttons for generating one-time passwords and an LCD display. It’s not available to the masses yet, and it probably won’t be for a while. For now, it’s only available in Singapore, and the keypad is there mainly to do one thing: punch in a password as a way for users to authenticate large purchases or other money transfers.
Credit Cards of the Future
If you’ve followed any of the pay-by-smartphone startups like Square and Venmo you know the tech industry has its sights on ridding us all of our traditional credit cards. “Near Field Communication,” otherwise known as NFC, is an emerging technology that allows communication by radio wave with devices nearby. An NFC-equipped phone can simply be swiped in front of a scanner, and that’s it – the item is paid for.
But Mastercard isn’t going down without a fight. The new “Display Card” isn’t a first for Mastercard, they have also partnered with banks in Turkey and Romania to issue credit cards with keypads and displays.
When Will the Credit Cards of the Future by Implemented?
Android and Blackberry devices are already capable of NFC authorization but until NFC gets popular Mastercard will likely keep developing toward credit cards with display screens and push buttons.
So for now, it’s useless to the majority of credit card holders. But this credit card of the future may have other uses someday too. In a statement released by Mastercard they stated “In [the] future, this card could incorporate additional functionalities and be able to indicate other real time information such as available credit balance, loyalty or reward points, recent transactions, and other interactive information.” Would you welcome the change?
