This Is Why Nobody Will Use Credit Cards In A Few Years

Ummmmmm... yeah.

I think there are still serious security considerations before this tech would be usable, especially with near field communication.

Smart phones are not very secure to begin with, and people don't keep them secure. They are not encrypted. Any wireless communication is inherently less secure.

Security is always an afterthought, a band-aid on such things. Call me old, but I'm not going to trust it just yet.

I like these new bank cards with integrated NFC more. So you can just wipe your card over the counter to pay. You can either setup the card to have you put in a code or let it pull the money automatically only having to press the OKE button at the counter.

http://www.telecompaper.com/news/ing-abn-amro-to-adopt-nfc-bank-cards--905337

Dead wrong on this one. Credit Cards will definitely be in use for many years to come. Baring an unforeseen first contact and acquisition of alien technology.

Contactless payment cards:

http://news.techworld.com/mobile-wireless/3408508/abn-amro-ing-to-introduce-mastercard-paypass-debit-cards-by-mid-2013/

A phone option with a code to unlock does keep a vital human step.

Yes, removing the human step does save time, but without physical human input at each point of sale, the transaction security goes down dramatically.

That, for example, is why most gasoline pumps now require a zipcode entry with a credit card purchase (to reduce fraud from a programable card being guess-numbered as easily).

Still, worries about stolen phones are truely no greater than worries about stolen wallets.

I, for one, prefer cash carried by myself with my CCW for security - since that comes with a physicality most scam artists are not willing to overcome.

Just stick a damn chip in my head already and do away with wallets altogether. Seriously, I lose the frickin thing like three times a week, just give me the brain surgery and let's get this sh*t over with.

Incredibly insightful article and dead on right re: NFC. NFC offers security features others do not. Square stores my CC information in the cloud (bad) and requires me to go through several steps to even open the app so I can perform an optical scan of a code stored on my mobile phone. There is no security even close to NFC (e.g., Google Wallet). Square must adopt NFC, which it may well do, to survive.

smart phone apps and NFC seems a giant step backwards

Security -- maybe NFC is secure -- maybe not. There's definitely an area where rf signals involving commercial transactions are frequently happening.

This is supposed to be range limited, but it may not be entirely true. A correctly designed antenna and receiver might be able to eavesdrop from some distance away -- not good.

This also replaces my free debit/credit cards with a complex, fragile(especially around water), and expensive device. I have no other need for anything like that.
( I use a pay as you go phone for emergencies).

Also, now all of your credit info is on this device -- which is often carried in a position where it's vulnerable to theft or just loss.

I hope that this doesn't come to pass for a loooong time

As institutions in the world that store our Credit card are always getting hacked themselves, maybe our bank or credit card company should just issue us NEW credit card numbers more often, there by voiding the old stored data that has been stolen\hacked.

With my own bank, once a year, I cancel my own credit card and request me to send me a new one with a new number. A user can request their number to be changed as often as they like. It just means for a week, you are without your credit card. I accept this inconvenience to enhance my own financial security.

Periodically, the user should automatically be force to update their password.

@ Kungfujustice

“Just stick a damn chip in my head already and do away with wallets altogether. Seriously, I lose the frickin thing like three times a week”

May I suggest a leather strap (about 8mm) for the „lost wallet“ problem. I have this problem with my keys. So I keep them on a leather strap that is long enough for me to open a door with and not take them off the strap.

Just another way they can charge you a service fee.

Two words: Katrina. Sandy. You can still conduct business using pen, paper and cash, but if we really enslave ourselves to convenience so hard that we give up cash in hand, then we will deserve the pain and sorrow an all electronic system will deliver. And, do you really want to rely on someone else entirely to prove you have the amount of money you say you do?

And oh btw, as someone else said, another way to revenue stream you using your own money AND another way for the govt to track and tax your own money. Relying so heavily on renting rich people's money funds corporate socialism. Time to wake up folks.

Articles like this are what's making PopSci fall more and more into Tabloid status.

Get real guys. It's not going to happen. We still have fax machines, which were supposed to be obsolete 20 years ago, just because Japanese businesses won't switch.

Unless every American consumer carries a 5" or smaller smartphone in 5 years, businesses are not going to switch away from credit cards and risk losing costumers.

Besides, as a consumer who actually uses Square and LevelUp, I've found those systems to be very-gimmicky and cumbersome. It takes 2-10 times as long to complete a Square or LevelUp transaction (that uses QC or NFC) than it takes to complete a regular credit-card transaction. The only reason I'd ever use one of them is if I get a discount for using them, or if I have no other choice (e.g. cash-only seller).

Until a bluetooth-based brain chip invented so that I don't have to take out a device and navigate through menus, nothing will be more convenient than using a credit card.