Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Friday 18 May 2018
Credit card payments evolve beyond the mobile wallet

By MELISSA LAMBARENA you order groceries from
Associated Press the Groceries by Master-
Mobile wallets can make card app; Whirlpool's Smart
paying by credit or debit Dishwasher, which, when
card seamless: Tap your synced with an Amazon
phone at checkout and account, can estimate
you're on your way. But when you're low on deter-
mobile wallets are just the gent and order it automati-
beginning. Payment net- cally.
works and manufactur- — Your body. Going totally
ers are building payment device-free could also be-
functions into more devices come an option. Biometric
— expanding your options payments make it possible
as well as freeing up your to pay by voice, face, iris
hands. scan or fingerprint. It's not a
You could find yourself big stretch from the biomet-
buying gas from the dash- ric authentication currently
board of your car, grocer- used by some phones or
ies from your refrigerator applications.
door or dinner by flashing a "The technology itself has
smile. And you won't even been around for a while,
need your phone with you but consumers were skep-
to make purchases on the tical of it," Jamison says.
go. In this June 30, 2016, image taken by AP Images for Visa, Team Visa athlete Popole Misenga uses They've since become ac-
MORE DEVICES ADD PAY- his Visa payment ring at the Copacabana Megastore in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. customed to authenticat-
MENT CAPABILITY Associated Press ing using a fingerprint via
Payment options already phone, and their prefer-
available or on the horizon head of innovation and In 2017, payment capa- actions take place. ence has shifted from user
include: design at Visa. bilities branched out from — Virtual assistants. When ID and password to bio-
— Wearables. Connected The market will determine, Apple and Android smart- voice payments are en- metrics, he says.
"smart" accessories such as he says, if fashion designers watches to some Fitbit and abled on virtual assistants In January 2018, CaliBurg-
watches, bands and rings want to "embed payments Garmin fitness devices, like Amazon Echo and er restaurants launched a
travel lighter than a phone. into a ring or any other de- meaning more people Google Home, you can pay-by-face pilot program
To use, the wearer holds a vice." One company pri- could leave their phone multitask and take care of in Pasadena, California.
wrist or hand up to a con- vately testing similar tech behind while working out. "errands" in the moment Customers pay for their or-
tactless payment terminal. is Token, whose smart ring By the end of this year, Visa with verbal commands. der by smiling for the cam-
Visa tested these devices — which performs a variety expects merchants to have CONNECTED DEVICES WILL era and entering the three-
at the 2016 Rio Olympics of functions, from opening tap-to-pay capability at 50 BE THE NORM digit number from the back
to demonstrate possibilities, doors to paying for pur- percent of U.S. locations Consider the number of of a credit card.
says Mark Jamison, global chases — has a waiting list. where face-to-face trans- mobile applications with MORE OPTIONS, FEWER
saved payment informa- PASSWORDS
tion on your mobile device. Current devices, apps and
In the future, you could free websites generally each
up some data and save a require a separate profile
little battery life by using with payment details. In
other connected devices: the future, you could keep
— Cars. Visa and Mas- payment information in
tercard are working with one place and sync it to
manufacturers to embed all devices. In 2017, Master-
options in car models. Man- card launched Consumer
ufacturers are also testing Control to offer consumers
ways to pay for gas, gro- a central view of their cards
ceries, takeout, metered across different channels.
parking and other things With access through their is-
from screens on vehicle suer, cardholders can add
dashboards. their cards to their favorite
"It's still early, but we are fo- shopping sites and devices
cused on bringing that to from one location.
life this year, to have the The forecast for the future
ability for you, as the driver, includes more convenient
to not just order from one payment options. Visa esti-
type of merchant," says mates that 50 billion smart
Stephane Wyper, senior devices will be connected
vice president of new com- to the internet by 2020.
merce partnerships and Merchants won't begin ac-
commercialization at Mas- cepting payments from
tercard. everything overnight; for
— Appliances. Appliances certain devices it may take
will get smarter in the fu- a few years. For now, you
In this Jan. 8, 2018, file photo, an attendee takes pictures of the new Samsung Family Hub smart ture. A glimpse of what's can start exploring the op-
refrigerator during a news conference at CES International in Las Vegas. possible: Samsung's Family tions outside of your mobile
Associated Press
Hub refrigerator, which lets wallet.q