By Dan Ilett, 15 September 2005 13:15
NEWS
The US arm of international bank HSBC is giving contactless debit cards to one million customers before the end of the year.
The bank is planning to reissue all customer debit cards to include MasterCard PayPass technology which allows people to place debit cards on scanners rather than sign their name when they make a purchase under $25.
In a press statement, Kevin Newman, senior executive VP for HSBC's personal financial services, said: "With [this], we're adding time savings and convenience to our debit checking account packages and using technology to improve our customers' experience."
In a similar way to London Underground's Oyster Card, contactless cards transmit payment details wirelessly between the PayPass device and a retailer's terminal. The transaction is then processed through the MasterCard network for clearing and settlement. The cards also include a magnetic stripe for traditional signature card transactions.
Several US retail chains, including McDonald's and 7-Eleven, have implemented scanners to read the contactless cards.
Last year MasterCard said it was working with Motorola to create a mobile phone handset that can be used as a credit card.
Comments
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1. anonymous
This is the begining of the cashless society. People want to be able to use their cards for small transactions but the pre-pay systems that have been tried before are inconvenient because you have to "charge" them with cash before you can use them and of course they debited your bank account before you actually bought anything. A fact not lost on the financial institutions promoting them. This meant they could earn interest on the money sitting on your card and benefit from cash on lost and unused cards.
Cards backed by current and credit card accounts are more convenient and of course the money only gets debited when you've actually bought something. The banks still benefit from less cash in circulation and reduced cash handling.
If cards are being replaced automatically the take will be huge. This could really spell the end for cash as we know it .
2. anonymous
Cash will diminidh rtpaidly, but won't disappear altogether as long as retailers refuse to accept cards (or EFT or cheques) for small purchases. They do this because they have to pay charges on card transactions, but banking cash is free.
If these realities change with contactless cards, then maybe cash will go.... though small street vendors, beggars and the like are unlikely to deal only with cards in my lifetime.
3. David Saunders
Is this really news? For quite a while in Singapore MacDonalds have been accepting their Mass Rapid Transit equivalent to our quaint Oyster as a payment method. Maybe this is really the old news.
4. Jim Paranoia
Cash is anonymous! It doesn't show on records. The government and big business spies can't track it. Long live cash