Visa and Mastercard are at it again. With Mastercard's PayPass and Visa's Contactless payment programs, the virtualization of money is getting more virtual.Visa and Mastercard have been working on the contactless payment solution for a number of years, and it looks like they are ready to step on the gas. The key indicator that they are getting serious? The commercials. Turn on the TV and watch your favorite show for 30 minutes. Good chance you will get a 30-second tutorial on the virtues of contactless payments.
Really it was just a matter of time. It is an obvious progression from swiping a piece of plastic. The logic being that making payments faster will translate into increased consumer spending. Good bet.
Top retailers have an opportunity to grab some PR and drive more revenues by taking advantage of contactless payments. Vending machines operators could greatly benefit from this technology.
Besides using smart credit cards to transact, contactless payments will be available by using a smartchip in your mobile phone as well. So as the physical plastic card becomes less important, the next question is when will Visa/Mastercard drop the name "credit card" in favor of a card-neutral name such as "credit account?" If and when that happens, we will know that we have reached the next step in payment processing.
Besides using smart credit cards to transact, contactless payments will be available by using a smartchip in your mobile phone as well. So as the physical plastic card becomes less important, the next question is when will Visa/Mastercard drop the name "credit card" in favor of a card-neutral name such as "credit account?" If and when that happens, we will know that we have reached the next step in payment processing.
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