Visa Readies CodeSure credit card in UK
Credit cards are getting an upgrade in the United Kingdom. Visa, one of the leading figures in the credit card industry is ready to launch its latest Visa CodeSure credit card to not only provide an innovative means for making payments but also enhance the security of a client’s credit information.
The Visa CodeSure card looks like any regular credit card, but flip it over and you would see that there is a built-in LCD screen with a 12-button keypad on its side. These features allow the cardholder to interact with their credit card, using it to authorize purchases and secure online transactions by turning on the LCD screen and entering a PIN code. The card is also compatible with the “Verified by Visa” system.
It carries a microchip that produces a continuously changing set of codes to ensure credit information security, and a slim battery technology that would help the card last for about three years. This feature allows the credit card to have a longer lifespan than the usual two year cycles of regular credit cards.
Visa also claims that that the use of the new CodeSure credit card would significantly reduce online fraud. Visa Europe’s Head of Innovation, Sandra Alzetta, explains that this exclusive solution as offered by Visa is a convenient means to provide security to online payments. Alzetta also added that she is sure that the card would prove itself as any regular cards used today, especially with its three-year battery life.
This impressive piece of credit card technology has won the Best Industry Innovation of the Year at the 2010 Card Awards, and it is voted as the top of the Oscards’ (an event that awards credit card brands for significant innovation of their payment cards) list of Business and Commercial Cards. The Visa CodeSure Card also makes the need of a bulky card reader obsolete, as the security device would be installed in the card itself.
Visa had been testing this piece of technology since 2009 with Emue Technologies Pty Ltd., in which they have conducted several extensive trials in some European banks to test its abilities. According to the findings from the pilot campaigns researched by eight credit card issuers in Europe, over 86% of the participating cardholders in the program reported that that feel more secure with their Visa CodeSure card transaction while 70% expected that they would use this new card in their online transaction more than they would use their regular cards.
Visa claims that it credit users and cardholders in the United Kingdom could expect to get their own Visa CodeSure credit card within a few months, but there have yet to be any announcements if this could be tested and released in the United States.
