Visa is claiming to have reinvented the card and is unveiling new products for a digital age. The actual future changes announced are underwhelming against that back drop, but still somewhat interesting.
- Visa flexible credential. Allows users to access multiple accounts through a single credential. For example you could toggle between different payment methods (debit, card, “pay in four” or rewards points). From my understanding this would still be linked to a single financial institution so you couldn’t have a Chase credit card and Wells Fargo card linked.
- Tap to everything.
- Any device can turn into a POS device. Assume this will be much higher fees than traditional POS terminals and their current mobile counterparts.
- Tap to confirm. Authenticates identity when shopping online
- Ability to tap your card to add it to your mobile pay (currently need to take a photo).
- Tap to person to person. Allows money to be sent to family and friends
- Visa Payment Passkey Service. Allows scan of biometrics like a face or fingerprint for online purchases, replacing one time codes or passwords.
All of it is somewhat interesting but it’s all made difficult by the fact that this only works on cards running on the Visa payment network. Think other solutions that allow all of the payment networks usually have a better uptake but at least Visa is trying.
None of these features sound like they will enrich me at the banks’ expense. It would be a lot cooler if they did
I saw the bit on Data Tokens and got excited that it might mean more visibility and control over stuff like Visa Account Updater (and maybe even the ability to turn it off!) Turns out it’s just another way for them to sell marketing data to retailers. 😞
this author agrees with me
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-15/visa-adds-new-way-to-share-customer-shopping-data-with-retailers
Just give me a digital card number when I’m approved for a new card instead of making me wait two weeks for the physical card in the mail.
Why Amex can do this and not Visa issuers is beyond me.
I have several instant issued Visa (Barclays, Citi, Synchrony) & MasterCard (Citi, Synchrony, Morgan Stanley). Instant issued has nothing to do with payment networks (Visa or MasterCard). It’s the issuer/issuing bank (ie Chase).
The more they roll out these kinds of anti-fraud features (which greatly reduce their losses/cost of doing business), the richer rewards SHOULD become.
But sadly that’s not what we’re seeing…
I can tap my MC capital one cards against my phone to verify my identity already. These are neat.
They’re planning that the model Europe is requiring, where the wallet app (and NFC access) can be replaced by individual bank apps, is going to be duplicated in the US. Then Apple Pay and Google Pay will be effectively DOA, and everyone will be back to physical cards (or selecting a separate bank app every time they use their phone).
I’ve used Apple Pay for virtually all transactions in Europe for several years. It isn’t going anywhere.
You do today because Apple and Google have one wallet all of your cards are in, and banks either support it, or miss out on transactions, but in the near future when banks can push you to use their app to use tap to pay on an iPhone they’ll have an incentive to stop supporting allowing their cards in Apples wallet. Same for Google Pay. Which would you prefer- pulling out your phone, selecting one wallet with the side button, having all of your cards, or the soon to come alternative: either your default card app by the side button, or you unlock your phone, find which banks app, then find the card? That’s where this is going. The low friction alternative is going to be the physical cards again.
Apple and Google Pay won’t be DOA, but we’ll just have more Pay apps.
The current card security chip collaborative includes each of the payment networks. It would seem to make sense for any such development to include each of them as well. Mai, non?
I like how DoC’s verdict on most new features is “this could be interesting”
That’s what idiots say when they have absolutely nothing to add.
Lol
Better than filling up the blogosphere with useless keystrokes
Your comment is useless keystrokes
to u2. the page is already here so it’s just using existing blank space.
I thought that was “It is what it is.”
Passkeys to confirm online purchases would be a huge step forward in security. I hope they are able to make progress on this broadly.
… and just like that, a fraudulent “test” charge from a merchant I’ve never done business with hit my WoH Visa this morning. The card number was keyed in.
Passkeys cannot come soon enough.
I hope physical security keys like YubiKey are also supported.
Hmm, well as long as it isn’t something that requires me to use my phone. I am so Q@#$%&$% sick of having to find my code to confirm something or enter some
@#$@#% 2FA code. I’m me, dammit. I don’t need yet another hitch when I’m ordering something. 99.9% of the time when I’m doing something online, it’s on my computer. *My* phone, is used as a phone. Shocker, that, but that’s how I am. And it’s usually when I’m on my computer, ready for bed, in my underwear, that I try to do something innocuous, like check my bank balance, that I get that dreaded 2FA request and I need to go search the entire @#$@#% house for my phone, which probably sin’t even in the house; it’s out in the car, or in the RV, or in my office, or buried under a mound of clothes in the laundry room. There’s also a good chance that the battery is dead, so by the time I get it charged enough to actually turn on, the 2FA request has timed out and I have to request it again.
I friggin hate 2FA. It’s right up there with recaptcha. Go friking away.
Set up Link to Windows. So it won’t solve your problems if your phone actually is out in your car or out of battery, but you’ll still like it.
Visa (and Mastercard) tried their own mobile wallets, and they went nowhere. Why would the new “smart” card (which is less smart than a mobile wallet) do any better?
Because some folks still need to/do carry around a bunch of physical cards? Not saying it’s gong to end up being successful but there’s a potential use case here for those looking to carry less of them. I, for one, usually carry a few cards as a backup in case my phone dies, a smaller retailer doesn’t do contactless, etc.
How does a physical card set the toggle? It of course has to be an online interface. It doesn’t sound any better than current banking apps at the larger banks where you can select “pay in four” or “pay over time” already
Until recently, my local Amazon Fresh store (with its much-hyped “just walk out”) didn’t do tap-to-pay. So it’s not just smaller retailers.