Radio Credit Cards Move Closer

pvt_medic writes "CNN.com has an article about research that some major credit card companies (MasterCard and American Express) are putting into creating 'contactless' credit cards. These are similar to the Speedpass that ExxonMobil has been using for six years. What to people think about the prospect of this more widespread use of RFID? Is this something that will only lead to more credit card fraud, or will it provide more secure means of payment?" (The article comes from the Associated Press.)

Comments

Rejoice!

[drewbradford]

This will make charging people to walk past my house much easier. In the past it's been tough for me to collect the $50 that I charge.

Faster than cash?

[Isopropyl]

"In some instances it's faster than cash," said Betsy Foran-Owens, a MasterCard vice president. "You're eliminating the fumble factor."

I agree. Nothing's more annoying than handing someone $10.15 for a $5.15 bill and watching the other person take out a calculator.

No Problemo

[the eric conspiracy]

I predict a booming market in shielded wallets.

Re:Well lets see...

[cpu_fusion]

> you better damn well believe
> it's gonna be as secure as possible

Oh yes, like the wonderfully secure state of credit card use on the Net right now.

It won't be *secure as possible* ... it will in fact, be as *secure as deemed needed* by beancounters. Those beancounters offset the minor inconvenience of a few hundred thousand people who have to deal with the shock & scare of being ripped off by holes in the new technology with the economic boost of a few more million people using their particular flavor of credit card.

Sure, the credit card companies might cover the losses (*might, after you fight*), but there's nothing like seeing a huge charge on your credit card, that you didn't make, and having to go through the hassle of getting it resolved.

Don't blindly think they make things "as secure as possible." That's not the economics of it.

Re:Well lets see...

[asr_man]

Wrong. RTFA. Consumer gets to make final "accept/reject" on purchase after card is scanned. Also, card includes challenge/response authentication (AMEX at least, MC we aren't told). As the article clearly states, knowing the RFID card number does not give a thief any practical means to use it.

Re:Well lets see...

[SurgeonGeneral]

We have a method of payment that can subtract electronic mone from your account, with no input from you, and without your card ever leaving your wallet? Yeah, thats a great idea....

I see a great number of redundant posts all throughout stating this same idea.

I think you guys are being more than just a little shortsighted. You read something about a RFID credit card and jump to a horrendous number of conclusions about how this technology will be used. Give it a little thought:

The most likely candidate for a technology to be paired with this is Biometrics. We're all quite familiar with this technology, and its easy to see how it would be coupled with RFID CCs.

But we can come up with something a little less "futuristic". I belong to a tennis club that uses RFID encoded cards for entry in to the building, but they are also used for purchasing food. What happens? You swipe your wallet (containing the card), and the computer in front of the salesperson (yes we have those nowadays) brings up a picture of me and all my personal information. If anything seems fishy, they ask for a signiture.

Now considering that this technology is not going to be immediately implemented, and will not be forced upon the general public, I think we can give at the very least a few more years before it becomes ubiquitous. In that case, use your imagination (I know its hard since tech evolves so quickly) to come up with some solutions to the pedantic and generally trivial questions just like this one that everyone is posing.