In light of Apple Pay, your credit cards look a bit old fashioned, even if they are geared up for contactless payments. This one, however, has its own fingerprint scanner, putting it on a par with the iPhone 6, iPad Air 2, and Samsung Galaxy S5.
It's made by Zwipe and Mastercard, and means you can confirm payments by touching your finger or thumb on the scanner. It holds your biometric data and will only allow the purchase to go through when it knows that the you're the one using it. No more PIN numbers, no more worrying about losing your card.
You can use it anywhere you can make regular contactless payments.
"Our belief is that we should be able to identify ourselves without having to use passwords or PIN numbers," Ajay Bhallan president of enterprise security solutions at Mastercard, said in a statement.
"Biometric authentication can help us achieve this. However, our challenge is to ensure the technology offers robust security, simplicity of use and convenience for the customer. Zwipe's first trial is a significant milestone and its results are very encouraging."
The first generation of the card housed a battery, which made it chunkier than your standard flexible friend. It was used in trials in Norway. However, the second generation is the same size as a normal credit card, and will work with terminals released next year.
Looks like contactless payments are about to become a lot more secure.
Read more: Apple Pay release date confirmed for October 20
Via: Pocket-Lint
