The Future Of... Credit Cards

Music

>> Sumi Das: With 24 million locations accepting credit cards worldwide, it's plain to see how Americans end up charging over $2.5 trillion each year. Convenience comes at a cost though. These plastic cards are easy to lose and a common targets for theft. But in the future, the way we pay may be simpler and safer.

Music Since it was first introduced in the '50s, the credit card has changed, but a major overhaul is in the works thanks to technology developed by Pittsburghbased Dynamics.

>> Card 2.0 is a nextgeneration payment card platform that has an entire computer in a card; it has a battery, it has a number of chips, a microprocessor, buttons, displays.

>> Sumi Das: Even the magnetic stripe has been revamped.

>> Our cards have a cardprogrammable stripe called the "Electronic Stripe" that can change on the fly any bit of information.

>> Sumi Das: Because it's rewritable, a single card could store multiple accounts. To switch accounts, users press the button next to the corresponding account number on the card's front.

>> For example, you may see a debit card and a credit card on a single card; you may see a corporate credit and a personal credit account on a single card.

>> Sumi Das: But what if you lose that one allimportant card? The technology offers added security.

>> In order to turn the card on, you have to enter an unlocking code that only you know into the face of the card, you enter the right unlocking code, then your number's displayed visually; after a period of time the display turns off and the stripe completely erases itself. The card's lost or stolen, it's irrelevant, it's a dead piece of plastic.

>> Sumi Das: Bad news for credit card hackers; welcome words for cardholders. Credit cards won't just function differently in the future. You'll be able to use them in more places. This plugin device can turn a tablet PC or SmartPhone into a point of sale for your plastic. Accepting credit cards can be costly for merchants, especially for small businesses like Mission Minis in San Francisco.

>> Merchant accounts charge you between 35 and $50 a month to rent the gear to use to take credit cards, and usually you have to sign up for a three to fiveyear lease.

>> Sumi Das: Enter Square, which charges per transaction but forgoes contracts and monthly fees. Just insert the card reader into your phone or tablet, download the app, and customers are ready to swipe and sign. And they can opt to get receipts by text or email. No bulky, pricey hardware, no complex setup. But will we even use credit cards in the future? Coupa Cafe in Palo Alto accepts cash, credit, and Bling.

>> You take out your Bling tag and you just have the Blinger. The cashier would actually enter the amount that you're transacting.

>> Sumi Das: Bling tags link to PayPal accounts, but they also share information on Facebook, offering business owners a unique glimpse at analytics.

>> You can go in online on your Bling Nation Facebook dashboard. So you log in and you say, okay, so from now on and for the next hour, if you come in, I'll give you $4 off any order, or I'll give you 50 percent off anything because I'm really slow. I need to get people in.

>> Sumi Das: The future of credit cards. A smarter way to charge it. For Smart planet, I'm Sumi Das.

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==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====