When credit cards go all digital what will we call them?

[pinkandgrey]

---

@pizza1 wrote:
There are some elderly folks out there who still have flip phones, and mail their bills in, and don't have online banking or anything, like my folks.

Im sure the companies have thought about this as well, and don't think it will be a "mandatory" thing. Me personally, I like having the actual card in hand, but Im kind of old school

---

I agree. I like the actual cards...

[kdm31091]

I think it will be more than a few years. There are still people writing checks for groceries, mailing checks for bill payments, etc.

I think having a physical card will be at least an option for a decade or more, if they ever go away at all. Consumers like virtual wallets, but inertia is a powerful force too. By and large, physical cards aren't broken. Digital wallets don't really solve much of a problem. They are easier, but not tremendously so, and you still need to carry backups anyway. To me, all the payment apps (Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Walmart Pay, Chase Pay, xyz 500 different pay apps) are solutions looking for a problem. I'm fine just using my cards; I like having the actual cards. There's also the aspect of storing data; more data/payment methods saved and stored on the phone could be a security issue to some people.

Even as new tech comes along, old tech rarely goes away entirely. Some amount of CDs are still sold every year. You can still purchase blank VHS tapes. You can still write checks. The point is that we won't be relying exclusively on digital cards anytime soon if ever.

[wasCB14]

---

@longtimelurker wrote:

---

@pizza1 wrote:
There are some elderly folks out there who still have flip phones

---

Early adopters then!   Some of my wife's relatives don't have mobile phones at all: what's wrong with a good home phone?  They don't want people to be able to contact them "all the time"....

---

They could follow the approach my mother used for years:

1. Get a mobile phone.

2. Never access your voicemail so it fills up.

3. Only turn it on when you need to call someone or are expecting an important call.

[NRB525]

I do not think physical credit and debit cards will ever go away. Ever. By that I mean, when you are issued a new account, or the expiration date turns up, you will get a physical card in the mail.

The basic advantage of a physical card, it is a physical object that can be held, seen, stored in real life. It is stable. 

Phone apps and electronic storage methods are fine as a temporary way to make the data ( card number, expiration, CVV code ) easily available but when the power is out, or the phone dies without a backup, one must begin to re-establish those numbers. 

When there is a compromise of an account, there must be a way to get the new information to the account holder that is not subject to snooping ( stealing mail is a risk, but has always been so ).

Even the format or standardized device an all-digital credit card would use is difficult to imagine. We can’t even get apps to have the same capabilities between Android and iPhone. 

There will continue to be growth in electronic wallets, because that simplifies transactions, but those are just proxies for the physical card.  

[Anonymous]

---

@wasCB14 wrote:

Phones still occasionally have problems, and a few merchants will inevitably be slow to update their equipment. I may just carry a few plastic cards as backups, but it will be a long, long time before I rely exclusively on my phone.

I expect some others feel the same way, and that issuers will at least make physical cards available upon request.

---

This.

I have all of the credit cards I use on apple pay, but I still always physically pay with the card. The only time I will use apple pay is when I am getting money out of the ATM (BOA) or if I am at the apple store. The one time apple pay came in handy was when I went to mcdonalds and I realized I left my wallet at home! Lol

Other than that, It will be a while before I rely fully on my phone for purchases.

[trusty]

---

@longtimelurker wrote:

---

@pizza1 wrote:
There are some elderly folks out there who still have flip phones

---

Early adopters then!   Some of my wife's relatives don't have mobile phones at all: what's wrong with a good home phone?  They don't want people to be able to contact them "all the time"....

---

Smartphones are unsecure because people jailbreak them all the time, and proceed to operate whichever way suits their fancy. Landline for the win.

[Anonymous]

After living as many years as I have, this thread pretty well vets the future. Doubt that the market place will ever be totally Smart Phone driven. There will be some form of access for those who on a certain day of the week or maybe never want to pay cash or use an actual physical card. Just like there are those who will use Debit Cards rather than Credit Cards. My interests lie along the lines of taking a physical card and just passing it over a payment terminal. Just as fast as anything else so ...? Now as to why people don't have cash stashed some where for emergencies is beyond me? Not all of us reside in major metro areas and may find we need help with some form of transportation or get stuck for a night due to weather and the vendor wants cash (no checks or electronics) out in the more off grid areas. Believe it or not, there are still off grid areas ... I live in such and environment. Yes, I stash cash for such a moment ...

[thom02099]

---

@pizza1 wrote:
There are some elderly folks out there who still have flip phones, and mail their bills in, and don't have online banking or anything, like my folks.

Im sure the companies have thought about this as well, and don't think it will be a "mandatory" thing. Me personally, I like having the actual card in hand, but Im kind of old school

---

Not just the elderly.  I have a techie friend who takes great pride in the fact that he still uses an old school phone that doesn't support emojis or image appendices. 

As to credit cards going away....won't happen.  As long as there are conspiracy theorists, the elderly, the technically challenged, the old school, ad infinitum out there, they will continue to exist.  They will have to pry my Zync from my cold dead hands! 

[trusty]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

After living as many years as I have, this thread pretty well vets the future. Doubt that the market place will ever be totally Smart Phone driven. 

---

Instead of smartphones, I can definitely see society going all digital, with an Iris Identifier, that scans each customer's eye for identification, and then the consumer can pay that way. This way, we couldn't need cash or cards; the customer would just setup which card they would use for each merchant, or they could indicate which account to remit payment from - at point of sale - after scanning their eye.

[calyx]

---

@longtimelurker wrote:

---

@pizza1 wrote:
There are some elderly folks out there who still have flip phones

---

Early adopters then!   Some of my wife's relatives don't have mobile phones at all: what's wrong with a good home phone?  They don't want people to be able to contact them "all the time"....

---

yep, I know people younger than me (30s) who don't have cell phones at all.