While some experts report the rapid growth of mobile payments in the world, other companies assure that the world is not yet ready for mobile payments.
Alongside Apple Pay and Google Wallet using the phone, smart or smart cards are entering the market that combine all cards in one payment solution.
First of all, such smart cards offer convenience and security - instead of constantly carrying around a dozen cards (including gift and bonus), all the user's payment instruments become available in one card. And if many merchants do not support contactless payment solutions like Apple Pay and Google Wallet, then you can pay with a smart card at any store where card payments are available.
The pioneer among smart card providers was Coin, which introduced its solution in 2021. Since then, at least three such solutions have appeared on the market: Swyp, Stratos and Plastc. However, to be able to use them, you need to wait. The companies currently only accept pre-orders.
As already mentioned, first of all, a smart card offers users convenience. Instead of constantly carrying a wallet full of cards, you can carry one digital one to replace the rest. How? Providers of such solutions deliver to the buyer not only a smart card, but also a magnetic stripe card reader that looks like a Square or PayPal card reader. Once the user has verified his identity, he can add all of his cards from the wallet to the smart card application by swiping each of them through the reader. After that, using Bluetooth, the application downloads the data to the smart card.
Some cards offer more than just convenience. For example, in the Plastc app, you can manage your budget and track all your transactions in one place.
Stratos, Swyp, and Plastc offer tokenization, a service that replaces the credit card number for every single transaction on the internet to prevent credit card data leaks.
The smart card looks like this. It has a small display on which the username and account number are displayed. It is also equipped with buttons with which you can switch between cards when you need to pay for a purchase. Some of the smart cards differ in that they know your preferred card depending on the place and time of purchase.
Since smart cards are an innovative solution, they must provide an adequate level of security. Let's see how this happens.
Alongside Apple Pay and Google Wallet using the phone, smart or smart cards are entering the market that combine all cards in one payment solution.
First of all, such smart cards offer convenience and security - instead of constantly carrying around a dozen cards (including gift and bonus), all the user's payment instruments become available in one card. And if many merchants do not support contactless payment solutions like Apple Pay and Google Wallet, then you can pay with a smart card at any store where card payments are available.
The pioneer among smart card providers was Coin, which introduced its solution in 2021. Since then, at least three such solutions have appeared on the market: Swyp, Stratos and Plastc. However, to be able to use them, you need to wait. The companies currently only accept pre-orders.
As already mentioned, first of all, a smart card offers users convenience. Instead of constantly carrying a wallet full of cards, you can carry one digital one to replace the rest. How? Providers of such solutions deliver to the buyer not only a smart card, but also a magnetic stripe card reader that looks like a Square or PayPal card reader. Once the user has verified his identity, he can add all of his cards from the wallet to the smart card application by swiping each of them through the reader. After that, using Bluetooth, the application downloads the data to the smart card.
Some cards offer more than just convenience. For example, in the Plastc app, you can manage your budget and track all your transactions in one place.
Stratos, Swyp, and Plastc offer tokenization, a service that replaces the credit card number for every single transaction on the internet to prevent credit card data leaks.
The smart card looks like this. It has a small display on which the username and account number are displayed. It is also equipped with buttons with which you can switch between cards when you need to pay for a purchase. Some of the smart cards differ in that they know your preferred card depending on the place and time of purchase.
Since smart cards are an innovative solution, they must provide an adequate level of security. Let's see how this happens.
- User identification verification. To ensure that a smart card is created by the true owner of all payment cards, the user will need to go through an identification process. First of all, he needs to provide his name and the last four digits of his social security number. In addition, you may have to answer a number of personal questions, such as the previous address, the name of relatives, etc.
- Safely adding cards to a smart card. Only cards in the user's name can be added to a smart card application. In addition, you will have to take a picture of the map while adding it. Some companies also require a user's selfie in order to compare it to a photo of the account holder.
- If you lose your smart card, it will be difficult for others to use it. Swyp, for example, requires a 4-digit PIN to be entered if the card is attempted to be used without a mobile phone. Coin made the task even more difficult - to activate the card, you will need to press the button as many times as the user has installed.
- Requirement to comply with PCI DSS standard. All merchants who want to accept smart cards on their website must meet the PCI DSS security standard.
