Credit Card Blog

With all of the coverage the iphone has been receiving over the last month I decided to find out what will be the next big thing in cell phones. Now we have already gotten to the point where we can take pictures, play songs, and surf the internet with your cell phone. What’s left? Well it seems like the cell phone is just becoming the use-all device where you won’t need to every carry anything else. I believe the next big thing to hit cell phones is that it will double as a credit card.

After doing some research I found the following: Motorola and MasterCard are at work on cell phones capable of secure financial transactions, such as banking or buying groceries with a credit card, the two companies said Tuesday.

Later this year, a few hundred U.S. residents will be testing two such product lines made by Motorola that use MasterCard’s PayPass wireless payment system, according to Motorola.

The Motorola-MasterCard phones will have “the potential to be lifestyle-changing–in essence, your phone will become your wallet, key chain and your ID,” Ron Hamma, a Motorola vice president, said in a statement.

The promised handsets, and the surrounding hype, revisit an idea that was much talked about a decade ago–that consumers could make purchases with cell phones rather than carrying cash, coins, credit cards and bank cards. Instead of having to reach for a wallet or purse, the thinking goes, consumers could wave cell phones over wireless readers, similar to the way a grocery store cashier scans items.

The idea fizzled because wireless data networks were, at the time, too slow and porous. But both Motorola and MasterCard said new technologies developed over the last few years have changed the situation for the better.

Motorola will outfit the phones with Near Field Communication, a powerful and secure wireless signal with a range of just 8 inches. NFC is used in “contactless” credit card readers, which are replacing traditional readers that require cards to be swiped, or gobbled up and spat out.

MasterCard conducted a nine-month trial of the technology, using phones from Nokia, last year in the Dallas area. These phones required an attachment with the PayPass chips inside. The Motorola phones will have the chips embedded, said Oliver Steeley, a MasterCard vice president.

As more information comes out about this product I will keep you posted. Remember, you heard it here first.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007 at 9:23 am and is filed under In the News, Chase, Discover, American Express, Mastercard, Visa, financial advice, capital one, Citibank, Bank of America. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.