Pay By Touch Fingerprint Credit Card

It almost sounds futuristic, a credit card you can use where all you need in order to pay for something is your fingerprint. You don’t need your credit card. You don’t need your Chip or Pin information. All you do need is your fingerprint – and you’re hardly likely to leave that somewhere! Well, futuristic it may sound but the technology is now with us and given the heighten amount of security it provides against credit card fraud it shouldn’t be too long before the technology is being rolled out in major retail stores in the UK.

How does it work?

The technology behind fingerprint payment credit cards sound really advanced. In fact it is not that far advanced, in the future, using a fingerprint touch credit card will become commonplace, what you’ll need to do is put your finger over a scanner and the scanner will then “read” your fingerprint. From this it will be able to determine your credit card number, your credit limit and your credit balance. The sales person will then enter your transaction and if you have enough available balance the transaction will be completed there and then. Nothing to sign, swipe or copy.

Will it work?

Each of us has a unique fingerprint. Although it is not impossible to copy your fingerprint, it is very hard to do so. With the fingerprint credit card it is envisaged that no one will be able to see your credit card details. All that will happen is you place your fingerprint over a scanner and the scanner will be able to read the information on the computer from your fingerprint. This should significantly reduce the chance that any fraudster can misuse your credit card, because to be able to do this they’ll need to be able to copy the unique details of your fingerprint. If for no other reason, this increased level of security heightened awareness is likely to make it very popular with UK credit card providers, who literally lose hundreds of millions of pounds a year to fraud.

When can we expect to see it?

It is unlikely that fingerprint credit cards are going to be around in the immediate future. For this, we will still need to depend on Chip and PIN security measures. However, the fingerprint credit card is undergoing trials in the United States at the moment and it is not difficult to see that if it is the success it is expected to be over there, it won’t be long until we can start to see its introduction in the UK.

Finally, one additional benefit that fingerprint credit card have over current technology is the fact that you, the credit cardholder, will never be able to have your credit card stolen, nor will you ever be able to lose it. The reason why this is the case? Because you will not be issued with any physical cards to keep in your purchase or wallet, all the information needed will be kept in your fingertip.

Richard Smith
31st July 2006

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