Check Your Visa Transactions On The Card Itself

from the the-smarter-card dept

Smart credit cards with built in chips never really took off in the US as was expected, but Visa is apparently experimenting with an even smarter credit card. They're testing cards that actually contain a tiny display screen on the card itself. The idea is that you could check your balance or your recent transactions directly on the card itself. The screen runs off of the smart card chip that no one was using before. Right now, they say the display-in-cards are a bit too fragile, but they expect to figure out how to make them more durable by next year. Of course, the other problem is that such tiny, flexible, durable displays built onto a credit card are going to be quite expensive. There are also some concerns about what data to show, and how to keep any sensitive data private. Perhaps this could work with the voice activated credit card everyone was talking about last week - though, you have to imagine that's only going to make the price go higher. Of course, as various wireless companies are working on ways to build payment technologies directly into the mobile phone, some may wonder why they need an actual credit card (smart or not) at all.