MasterCard unveiled a new technology that would add a new touchpad and LCD screen to every credit card. The company hopes that the device will make credit card processing more secure for users, and bring about a few new features that separate MasterCard from the competition.
The new "Display Card" will look very much like a modernized four function calculator, but be as thin as any other credit card. The keypad will allow customers to input specific authentication tokens when making various transactions that are considered high-risk for banking companies. The card would allow for customers to enter a password for payments over a security threshold, adding payees to the card, or changing details about the user on the credit card.
The good news is that the card will no longer require a separate device to authorize the card and the password.
The Display Card has a few other unique features. They hope to use the small LCD screen to show the card's balance, accumulated rewards, as well as recent charges and transactions that will appear on your next credit card bill.
As regulating authorities stress lower credit and debit card processing fees, MasterCard and others have incentive to reduce the risk of fraud, which cuts into profit margins for processors and infuriates credit card users. The technology would allow credit card fans to set a transaction limit on the card at which the user would have to enter a secure password. The idea is simple: reduce the largest credit card fraud and significantly lower the cost of doing business for payment processors.
MasterCard is also competing with the likes of Google, which recently revealed a new credit card designed to take its phone-based payment system to a physical card. MasterCard's new secure service appears to be easier to use and less costly for merchants than mobile phones, given that it operates alongside the same credit card hardware and software deployed in millions of small and large businesses around the world.