topic Re: How Long Will the 'Card' in Credit Card be Here in Credit Cards

How Long Will the 'Card' in Credit Card be Here

bigman023 — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 01:38:54 GMT

With all the new technology we have today, Im wondering how much longer the CCC will be issuing cards. My guess is that many of the prime cards may already be experimenting. Have any of you holders of prime cards ever been given the option to have something besides a card issued to you?

Re: How Long Will the 'Card' in Credit Card be Here

nicholasyud — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 01:45:11 GMT

said what ???

Re: How Long Will the 'Card' in Credit Card be Here

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 01:47:43 GMT

what do you mean by the "card" ???

Re: How Long Will the 'Card' in Credit Card be Here

FutureBillionaire — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 01:49:51 GMT

He means that our cell phones will eventually become our cards and our cash. Different companies are launching different products that are going to move us this way over the next few years.

Re: How Long Will the 'Card' in Credit Card be Here

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 01:52:50 GMT

Pretty sure the op is talking about virtual payment methods (eg google wallet)and if/when they will completely replace physical credit cards

Re: How Long Will the 'Card' in Credit Card be Here

jake619 — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 01:59:46 GMT

Full displacement of cards will not happen but they could coexist. Good luck telling my Mom she has to have a cell phone if she wants to pay using credit. Maybe the CCC will pay cell her bill as a way to buy her business.

I can hear it now... Oh man, I really wanted to buy dinner but my phone is dead... I could be wrong, cars will fly in the year 2000 Oops!

Re: How Long Will the 'Card' in Credit Card be Here

mikka1 — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 02:02:54 GMT

I doubt this would happen completely anytime soon. One has to account for inertia in moving from what people were used to. I still often see people paying in grocery stores with personal checks. For me as a person born in late 80s it already seems to be at least strange as I can't find any particular reason for doing so (if someone doesn't like credit cards or can't get them for some reason, there are still debit cards that are much more convenient than checks).
Another example might be with toll transponders - I don't own a car, but I still have my account with EZPass and use my transponder every time I rent or borrow a car. No doubt it is more convenient (and even cheaper in NYC) than using cash for tolls, but according to the stats there are still ~30% of motorists paying cash...

Re: How Long Will the 'Card' in Credit Card be Here

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 02:09:27 GMT

Citi and other banks offer key fobs.

Re: How Long Will the 'Card' in Credit Card be Here

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 02:16:05 GMT

@jake619 wrote:
Full displacement of cards will not happen but they could coexist. Good luck telling my Mom she has to have a cell phone if she wants to pay using credit. Maybe the CCC will pay cell her bill as a way to buy her business.

I can hear it now... Oh man, I really wanted to buy dinner but my phone is dead... I could be wrong, cars will fly in the year 2000 Oops!

Might not be full displacement but I can imagine old-style cards becoming almost a niche, and issuers focussing on other technologies. One huge win for the cell phone-based solutions is that it incorporates GPS, allowing merchants to present special offers on various cards when the user is in the vicinity, increasing use for the credit supplier. And then for the user there are apps which can advise you which card to use to get the best reward etc, so users will prefer this, as well as being one less thing to carry.

Yes, it's hard to know if we are in flying-cars-by-2000 land, but many people never predicted the rise of cell phones over the last two decades. In mid 2012, 34% of households had wireless phones only. As time passes, this will become much greater. (Imagine trying to sell the concept of a landline phone now. "When people call, it may not be for you, but someone else in the house. And if no-one is there, well, you can find the message when you get back home.")

Or some other new technology might take over, transmitting devices planted into the eyes at birth for example! (People might want to minimise the number of "cards" they apply for in that case).

Re: How Long Will the 'Card' in Credit Card be Here

bigman023 — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 02:18:17 GMT

Sorry I wasn't all that clear...

I agree that any new technology will coexist with the cards that are currently issued. For a while now, I have seen the occasional article showcasing the alternatives to actual cards. Im just wondering when or if one of the big CCC will start using alternatives to cards. Im even more curious to know if we as consumers would prefer the alternative or do we like the prestige of presenting certain cards.

Re: How Long Will the 'Card' in Credit Card be Here

webhopper — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 02:24:27 GMT

I predict that the concept of a physical card will be here for at least the next 40 - 50 years. They are too prolific and people won't change.... You have to wait for my generation to start moving away from spending in society.

My mom still pays her bills by putting a paper check in an envelope with a stamp.... now there's something I personally haven't done in 5 years.

Will the card technology eventually change to a chip? sure!

But for now, swiping is here to stay for the next 10 years in my honest opinion

Re: How Long Will the 'Card' in Credit Card be Here

jake619 — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 02:25:00 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

Or some other new technology might take over, transmitting devices planted into the eyes at birth for example! (People might want to minimise the number of "cards" they apply for in that case).

Yea Glyph does that now. Your home phone analogy is funny to me because I'm in telecom. We've gone from analog to digital to VoIP and still can't shake analog lines. As antiquated as a traditional fax is they're still around. I suspect CC's will be, too. Plus since I still have to carry an ID a CC isn't a big deal.

Re: How Long Will the 'Card' in Credit Card be Here

L-TWT — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 02:26:26 GMT

@bigman023 wrote:
With all the new technology we have today, Im wondering how much longer the CCC will be issuing cards. My guess is that many of the prime cards may already be experimenting. Have any of you holders of prime cards ever been given the option to have something besides a card issued to you?

I believe you are referring to the "Multi-Interface/Programmable" credit cards. Its an all-in-one type of card that you would be able to program between different account (i.e, credit cards & debit cards). Mastercard is the only company that I know of that has been toying around with that concept. I would guess that type of technology would be expensive to mass produce & come with numerous safety risk, so I do not see that type of technology no time so, at least here in the USA B/C we are so FAR behind!

Re: How Long Will the 'Card' in Credit Card be Here

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 02:36:25 GMT

@jake619 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Might not be full displacement but I can imagine old-style cards becoming almost a niche, and issuers focussing on other technologies. One huge win for the cell phone-based solutions is that it incorporates GPS, allowing merchants to present special offers on various cards when the user is in the vicinity, increasing use for the credit supplier. And then for the user there are apps which can advise you which card to use to get the best reward etc, so users will prefer this, as well as being one less thing to carry.

Yes, it's hard to know if we are in flying-cars-by-2000 land, but many people never predicted the rise of cell phones over the last two decades. In mid 2012, 34% of households had wireless phones only. As time passes, this will become much greater. (Imagine trying to sell the concept of a landline phone now. "When people call, it may not be for you, but someone else in the house. And if no-one is there, well, you can find the message when you get back home.")

Or some other new technology might take over, transmitting devices planted into the eyes at birth for example! (People might want to minimise the number of "cards" they apply for in that case).
Yea Glyph does that now. Your home phone analogy is funny to me because I'm in telecom. We've gone from analog to digital to VoIP and still can't shake analog lines. As antiquated as a traditional fax is they're still around. I suspect CC's will be, too. Plus since I still have to carry an ID a CC isn't a big deal.

Yes, I was referring to Glyph as well. I'm in telecom too and we are losing analog lines at an ever increasing rate. Yes, there are still millions, but many less millions than a decade ago! I don't understand why fax still lives (slow and inconvenient compared to scan and email) but I agree it does. As another example of things that have really decreased, payphones. Used to be everywhere, now you really have to hunt.

Re: How Long Will the 'Card' in Credit Card be Here

webhopper — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 02:39:14 GMT

Another Tidbit of information for you tech gurus out there...

Fax lines still exist and it is the only Way to send info to the VA besides snail mail. My hubbs VONAPP counselor needed all of the documents to be faxed since that was "secure"

Anyways... I went to faxzero and faxed the PDF documents. Faxes with a small number of pages are free, faxes with 15 pages cost $1.90

Re: How Long Will the 'Card' in Credit Card be Here

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 02:45:32 GMT

@bigman023 wrote:
Sorry I wasn't all that clear...

I agree that any new technology will coexist with the cards that are currently issued. For a while now, I have seen the occasional article showcasing the alternatives to actual cards. Im just wondering when or if one of the big CCC will start using alternatives to cards. Im even more curious to know if we as consumers would prefer the alternative or do we like the prestige of presenting certain cards.

I assume that the replacement(s) would still support different "cards" so, for example, your cell phone could flash and play some special music when you paid with "My God I am Just So IMPORTANT" card. I think "prestige of presenting certain cards" is totally in the mind of the presenter (most staff swiping them quickly don't really care or even notice) but of course that is important for marketing.

Re: How Long Will the 'Card' in Credit Card be Here

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 02:44:24 GMT

@webhopper wrote:
Another Tidbit of information for you tech gurus out there...

Fax lines still exist and it is the only Way to send info to the VA besides snail mail. My hubbs VONAPP counselor needed all of the documents to be faxed since that was "secure"

Anyways... I went to faxzero and faxed the PDF documents. Faxes with a small number of pages are free, faxes with 15 pages cost $1.90

Until recently all expense reports at our Big Telecom company had to be faxed because, well, because that was the policy. So you take your expense report from the web server, print it, then fax it. In the last year or so, they have allowed web submission of the form and scanned uploads of receipts, so progress can occur, just takes ages!

Re: How Long Will the 'Card' in Credit Card be Here

thom02099 — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 04:19:23 GMT

Tech savvy people would embrace some of the changes discussed here. But I think for the vast majority of customers, "da card" will be with us for a long time. Change doesn't come easily in that industry. Heck, we can't even get them to move away from magnetic strips on the cards in favour of chip and PIN.

Re: How Long Will the 'Card' in Credit Card be Here

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 04:51:53 GMT

@thom02099 wrote:
Tech savvy people would embrace some of the changes discussed here. But I think for the vast majority of customers, "da card" will be with us for a long time. Change doesn't come easily in that industry. Heck, we can't even get them to move away from magnetic strips on the cards in favour of chip and PIN.

I don't think the resistance to chip&pin comes from consumers, who seem happy enough using ATMs. More the costs to business of updating.