Credit card companies are now developing a range of credit cards that actually speak to their owners. The new cards will be able to display a consumer's balance along with acting as a reward card.
The credit cards are set to be released in the USA later in 2011 and will contain small microprocessors. The batteries will last for up to three years. In order to combat fraud, the cards will only display personal information to the consumer once a special confirmation code has been entered.
Following the introduction of chip-and-pin in Europe, France saw the number of fraudlant claims reduce by 80%. Changes to the US system have been much slower because of the volume of cards in circulation.
Mastercard has recently released a card that contains a small LCD screen which displays a one-time code each time it it used so that customers can make a purchase. This might not even be the latest in changes to credit cards. According to recent reports in the WSJ, both Google and Apple are considering using‘near-field communications’ (NFC) technology so that consumers can make payments securly using their cell phones.
Todd Ablowitz, president of Denver-based Double Diamond Group, a consulting firm that focuses on payments strategy technologies and products told creditcards.com: ‘Although mobile payments is the future, you're not going to move all that overnight to magical phones.
‘So these are step innovations, rather than leap innovations. Some are very much needed, and some are probably not going to make it.’
