Promising
breakthrough technology
In old good days, the credit card was a symbol of wealth and
prosperity of its owner. Not anymore. Most people carry multiple cards for various
purposes in their purses. Why not using a single one? Well, there may be
multiple reasons:
* Multiple cards offer bigger borrowing potential as summary
of credit lines.
* You can play smart by using promotions on one card for the
balances transfers to pay for other card debts.
* Many cards use the selected promotions on the incentives,
related to the particular categories of purchases.
* Some stores (like Costco) allow paying with particular
credit card only.
* Using different credit cards to distinguish between
personal and business purchases,
… and many more…
A new business proposal from Coin, a company based in San
Francisco, is what you may really want – they offer you to replace every credit
card in your wallet with a single all-in-one programmable credit card. Coin
allows you to load up to eight cards onto a single plastic device.
'This is designed for the lifestyle of today with the
technology of tomorrow,” says Kanishk Parashar, founder of Coin. 'You don’t
need eight cards every day, so your phone is kind of like your drawer, and your
Coin is kind of like your wallet.'
Users then take photos of their cards, swipe them through
the dongle and upload them to the Coin mobile app, which stores the info onto
your Coin card. When you want to pay, you browse through stored cards on your
Coin, select one, and swipe it anywhere credit, debit or gift cards are
accepted.
Information is loaded onto the card through a mobile app.
The process of adding card information to the mobile app is very simple and is
done by taking a picture or two and swiping credit cards through a dongle
attached to your phone.
In order to make a payment with this card, users tap a
button on the Coin card and pick which account they want to pay with, whether
it's a business credit card or a personal debit card. To differentiate between
cards, Coin displays the last four digits of each card, its expiration date,
and the security code. After picking an account, the Coin card is swiped
through, no different than any other card.
The Coin card uses a Bluetooth emitter which means if the
card is left behind for any reason the card will no longer function. The
battery in Coin, said to last up to two years, powers a small display screen
that shows which saved card will be charged, along with its expiration date.
Cards are entered into Coin after being swiped on a
Square-like dongle plugged into a smartphone.
There are also few worries about leaving the card behind
somewhere or losing it altogether.
The coin card only operates if your smartphone is nearby by
using the Bluetooth signals. If the card is disconnected for more than ten
minutes, the phone will alert the customer that they have left their card
behind. If the owner drifts too far from Coin, his or her smartphone will alert
them. If the card is disconnected for more than 10 minutes, it automatically
disables itself, which could potentially be an issue if a phone runs out of
juice.
Coin can be preordered for $55, with an expected delivery
time of summer 2014. Later, it plans on selling the cards for $100 each.
You can pre-order your device through the following link: https://onlycoin.com/
Substantial skepticism
Will Oreumus, a blogger with FutureTense, isn't convinced
the technology has a chance for successful takeoff. “To me, the only real
problem with Coin is that it feels like a stopgap technology, like those
CD-changer cartridges that were popular for a little while before everyone
switched to mp3s. Replacing eight cards
with one may lighten your load by an ounce or two, but is that enough to
convince people to take the leap of faith involved in adopting a new payment
system?
Even early adopters could be forgiven for holding out for a
more comprehensive digital wallet—the kind that will let you pay for everything
just by tapping your phone, or perhaps some other, even more seamless gesture.”
Here are more warning notes which may let you think twice
before preordering this new device:
* “Putting all your eggs in one basket” would allow thieves
to skim not just one card at a time, but all of them, or grab all your credit
card info by simply hacking your smartphone. Along the same lines, if the card
stops or malfunctions or your phone runs out of batteries (and drops contact
with Coin) you won’t have access to back-up cards.
* This device will not be useful in many countries, since
Canada, Mexico and most of Europe use Chip and PIN (EMV protocol). In fact, Coin’s
cards might not be usable for long because the similar protocol might become a
standard in the USA by 2015.
* Cloning your own credit card might be in violation of some
terms with your credit company. The Coin card reader and its card-duplicating
system are essentially "cloning" credit cards and may violate
industry standards, and possibly laws against forgery.
* Before the card will be adopted to the general public and
businesses, you may see that some stores
and other points of sale might not accept the Coin card as unfamiliar and not
trusted device.
Competition
While the Coin products are not delivered to the users, the business
is lucky to have a direct competitor.
Boston-based startup Loop has just released its own mobile
payments device for iPhone -- one that works at most traditional U.S. retail
outlets. The Loop Fob is a small device that allows users to store credit card
information on the iPhone, and then wirelessly pay at any traditional magnetic
stripe reader.
The cost is $39, and it can be purchased at the following
link: http://www.looppay.com/product/fob/
The Loop Fob can be used while attached to the iPhone, or it
can store a single card and be used separately at restaurants and bars. The
company says payment data is encrypted and stored on the Loop Fob device, and
no credit card info is ever stored on the iPhone.
Loop also has a dedicated $99 iPhone case in the works which
will be released later this year. It will allow Loop owners to make touch less
credit card payments without needing a separate hardware device. All the
necessary technology will be built into the iPhone case. The fob will still be
used to read credit cards for storage, however.
Sources and Additional
Information
