Americans have been addicted to plastic credit cards for decades; making it easier for the criminally inclined to exploit their decades-old weaknesses.
Credit and technology companies, however, are looking for ways to go beyond plastic – with each company taking a stab at what it thinks will click.
Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Google and newcomer Bling Nation are all fiddling around with smartphones. Countries like Japan have already proven that the system works, and today’s tech-savvy Americans are more likely to receive these changes well.
Citibank is poised to release Citibank 2G cards, which will use “smart” chips in lieu of magnetic strips and will allow a user to have simultaneous access to lines of credit, debit and reward.
All of these options, however, are moot if Americans themselves will stubbornly stick to traditional plastic cards.
Familiarity and reliability are two strong reasons for most folks to keep using plastic, while fraud liability usually falls on the bank that released the card.
Industry-wide changes need to be implemented before credit cards are totally phased out. That will be up to the aforementioned companies whether they will dedicate a significant amount of their resources to the shift.
In the end, though, the average Jane and Joe will at least have the opportunity to test and pick out what works.