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The Future Of Payment Cards - Since the year 1950 cards have been used to make financial transactions. Ralph Schneider and Frank McNamara, founders of Diners Club, started charge cards to consolidate payments with merchants and allow people to pay one large bill at the end of the month. MasterCard was born in 1966 when a group of credit issuing banks created Master Charge. It received an influx of business and benefited when Citibank merged its proprietary ‘Everything Card’ into Master Charge in 1969.
"Plastic cards have probably evolved as much as they can” – a industry expert was recently quoted.
"We are no longer tied to the plastic form factor," he said. "Contactless technology is the next great wave of change for payments. If you can let go of the magnetic stripe on the back of the card, you can let go of the plastic card."
Most people are so accustomed to the plastic payment card that it is hard for them to realize that they can make purchases with any objects that have contactless technology. The fundamental function of a card is simply to originate a command into a network to initiate a transaction.
Many financial industry experts see in the near future payments headed to the mobile phone, especially the new generation of smart phones or 3G devices. A contactless chip can be integrated into many objects, especially mobile phone devices.
“Cards are still Number 1", and will be for the foreseeable future… reiterated an industry expert, and mobile payment devices will be in addition to the existing card infrastructure. Success of contactless devices for payments will need universal acceptance and infrastructure development with merchants and processors before they can be considered a permanent replacement to credit cards and debit cards.
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