I read the article called MasterCard, Visa Moving U.S. Credit Cards to "Chip-and-PIN" by 2013. This article struck me as very interesting for many reasons. First it would eliminate troubles that travelers to different countries experience. This new Chip-and-PIN method would have a chip inserted into your credit card that had a pin number along with it just as a normal debit card would. The difference between this credit card and a debit card is that it would change your money into the currency of the country that you were in. Say that you were in Europe and you bought something when you went back to the U.S. and had to pay your credit card bill it would automatically transfer the Euro's into American dollars leaving you with much less hassle as a customer and traveler. Most travelers have to go thru a process where they need to get travelers checks or need to convert their money over into the countries currency before they leave for their trip. With this new method it will be a smooth and easier process overall.
Also in the article it talked about how not only is MasterCard trying to accomplish this Chip-and-PIN method they are also trying to make everything wireless, whether it is online shopping or in stores, MasterCard wants to achieve a no swipe method. This method would be thru Google and it would a tap to buy method where you would just tap your card against a surface and the purchase would be made. Although this seems like it is a great invention for the future it leaves some doubt in my mind from a customer standpoint as far as security. If you ever lost this no swipe card that you only need to tap onto a surface to purchase an item, what is to happen if the card is ever lost or stolen? Since this is still in the making and new we will see how everything plays out.
I think it is really cool how the credit card knows to switch what type of money you are paying with when you are in a different country. That would definitely be convenient for people who travel from country to country whether it is on business or leisure. Eliminating the need for travelers checks would be much less of a hassle for all customers who would be using this new card. The idea of just passing the card over a surface without swiping would definitely speed up the process at checkout lanes, but I agree with you that there would be many different security issues that people would worry about. I’m sure that there would be a way for people to invent a scanner of some sort that they could walk by a person and scan their card through their wallets or purses.
ReplyDeleteTechnology these days is changing the world one thing at a time, this time its credit cards. I think it’s amazing that a credit card can convert to the different type of currency when you’re in a different country. This idea is great for the constant traveler so they don’t have to take money out of the bank and convert it all at once. This is extremely easy because as you said Alyssa, there would be no need to traveler checks. Since the card works by passing it over the surface it takes less time and will speed up the paying process and make consumers and workers both happy. I also agree how you say that there are definitely security issues that need to be ironed out first. Since they can just tap the card anyone could steal the card and tap it. They would have to come up with some sort of authentication system to make sure that the person tapping the card is really the card holder.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very cool idea. Allowing for a card to transfer currency is something that should have been done a long time ago. I could imagine that transferring currency would be tricky, though. I wonder if there is a cost associated with doing so? Even without an additional cost I wonder how easy it would be to track money before making purchases. Is there a way for the card to give a sub-total before purchases are made? I would think it would be very easy to lose track of how much you're spending because of currency conversions. That could spell trouble for travelling consumers and if they’re using a credit rather than debit system they may not realize how much debt they’re putting themselves into. Creating a world-wide currency transfer system sounds like quite a difficult task. It will be interesting to see how this develops.
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