Evening all,
I'm writing this looking out my window at the still nice and sunny evening, where I've stepped outside for about 4 mins to take out the rubbish. I've been hungover but mostly just lazy.
I dunno if anyone will read this blog post, it's going to be pretty boring unless you've got a specific interest in it - but I think it's quite cool. I believe that within the next 5 years the credit card as we know it, will be dead.
Since I work in the industry this interests me, but also for being a customer with a credit card it's quite cool to see where this is all going.
I was reading an article in the doctors surgery a couple of months back, and it was about the guy who made Twitter of all things, has now moved onto his next ideas - which is the digital world of finance.
His plan, and I think this is how we'll naturally move - will be to turn physical plastic credit cards, into metaphorical cards that just exist on your phone or tablet.
It's easy to see how, one new thing with credit and debit cards is the contactess technology. If the store does it, and your spend is under a certain amount you simply waive your card under a scanner (after the teller has added up what you've bought) and then it's done. Paid. Simple.
So I think the next stage, will be to expand on this to larger sums with more stores taking part. But equally what if the credit cards 'chip' could be installed on a phone? The next lot of smart phones have the ability to install this chip - so it acts as your credit card - even being able to simply scan it at a Contactless store.
Then the next step - why the need for a teller? We always joke that robots will take our jobs, but what if they took over the high street stores too? And not even a robot - simply something digital with just a store manager needed (and perhaps 1 member of staff, just in case)
So you enter the store with your smart phone and credit card chip - you get your goods, and go to pay, swipe and done.
Take it a step further. What if as soon as you enter the store, GPS on phones is so accurate that it knows you're in the store. What if there was an app (there already is, so let's hope it takes off) that the store has - where it then picks up you've entered the store - you have an 'online profile' of sorts, and that you get your goods - and go to pay and the total is simply billed to your online profile (As it has a card linked to it) and that's it - you leave - no wallet, no swipe, and I would imagine little to no queue.
The ideas after this start to get a bit tricky without planning. I imagine shops will get rid of their tills and replace it with a iPad or other tablet, that runs an app which has a barcode scanner and stuff - and automatically lists the customers profiles who have entered the store - you just confirm who you are - and then as saiid before you're items/total are charged to this account.
What if your phone app had the same scanner, and YOU scanned the items (this is the bit which needs planning, as obviously this might just cause mass theft etc) - and then you didnt even need to queue or anything.
Actually perhaps the store has this ipad with it's app - but it also has this like 'check in' screen at the front of the store, so you just swipe your phone as you enter. But I dunno, that might be meaningless if the GPS is so good the store auto picks up when you enter. But I might be a bit optimistic here!
The app could also make you aware of any offers that exist, i.e. running alongside 4Square and telling you about any of their offers in the place you are in (As this could work in restaurants very easily). That would be cool AND provide an invaluable customer service.
All of this certainly points to one thing - the death of credit cards as such - there will be no need for them anymore - maybe even becoming a novelty of sorts - however I guess the downsides are what if you lose your phone - how does that work I wonder - or you simply don't have one, or a very old one incapable of using the technology - it throws up some interesting questions which I don't have the answers for. (Though one might be to be sent the chip which you simply place in your wallet)
Either way as I said I find this stuff really interesting and in my job I'd love to move into a department that do all this kind of stuff - but that's irrelevant to this - god knows if you found that interesting but I'd imagine the majority simply don't care!
Cheers
