Fun (but Maybe Impossible) CC Idea?

[Anonymous]

Well, I have to think about something while laying in bed, trying to recover from a severe asthma flare inside a cold, heat-less house.

It would be interesting if there was a card that would shift colour based on utilization. For example, say there was a CC that started out, I dunno, blue. Depending on utilization, it would shift toward red. At 50%, it would be a solid purple. At 25% an indigo, at 75% a mauve/maroon, and at max out, fully red.

I'm sure the technology involved would be complicated. There would need to be a way to communicate the util. to the physical card (maybe via EMV?), and there would need to be a material that can shift colour at will (lost on that one). But, I think that would be kind of cool to have, as an easy visual way to keep track of spend, especially if you are the type that is bad with numbers.

Anyone else have any cool, unusual CC ideas? (Looking more for physical attributes, or unusual services, rather than rewards.)

[jsucool76]

I feel like this could be possible with some of the newer all in one "smart" cards. Ones that have screens at least. Maybe they wouldn't change color, but there could be a progress bar (similar to a battery bar) that shows how much of your limit you are using, with a percentage next to it. Would require a lot more though, as it is something that would need to pull data constantly to track your card usage. Something like this could be far easier implemented into something like Apple, Android, or Samsung Pay.

[Anonymous]

Coin could have done it (and possibly in real time too thanks to the Bluetooth connection), but that entire company's having a hard time just making a card that'll swipe everywhere let alone something like OP's idea.

[nyancat]

Coin never had a chance. My only curiosity is when they knew that. Did they open up knowing they had to chance and a product concept based on dated tech that would never work? Or did they realise that at some point later, and if so - when?

Loop had the right idea - an end game. Partner with card networks (to get usable stripe data) and a phone partner (which ended up buying them). The dongle was only to get attention. I don't see coin as having such an end game. Plastc might though, in MasterCard.

[UncleB]

That's an interesting concept!

The only 'con' I can think of is that it would be advertising to the world at large your status with your card.  A thief would appreciate locating a card that he could tell at a glance had plenty of available credit, and conversely once the card is near the limit each time I used it (if it were me) I would feel a bit 'judged' by anybody who could see that my card was 'obviously' almost full.

This being said, it's still a cool idea!