Wearable Mobile Payments App
There are a lot of exciting things to look forward to in the mobile payments industry for the consumer and the business owner. Mastercard Worldwide has established a partnership that will allow contactless payments with some luxury watch brands. Mastercard also established a partnership with WISeKey. This is a Swiss company that supports security for leading luxury watchmakers. They are now working to enable mobile payments to any consumer gadget or wearable accessory. Whether or not these products will be marketed to the general public or a select few remains to be seen.
If you are not already aware, the Apple Watch can already store a consumer’s credit card accounts in a digital mobile wallet. PayJunction, a credit card processing company, has developed a Smart Terminal that can accept and read credit cards that are processed via the Apple Watch. In the future, the Smart Terminal will also be able to process these new payment processing luxury watches. See here for more information on PayJunction’s Smart Terminal.
Mobile Payments App ReaderBiometrics in Payment Processing
At the Mobile World Congress event in February of 2016, Mastercard also revealed a six-month pilot program in the Netherlands that allowed an account holder to authenticate purchases using biometrics. Consumers were able to verify their purchases using a selfie or their fingerprint instead of a password. Nine out of ten participants said they preferred the biometrics. Mastercard believes that other countries would follow suit. There are plans to launch the biometric technology for mobile payments in the US, Canada, and some countries in Europe beginning this summer.
Driving Payment App
Visa also established a partnership with the auto manufacturer Honda and an on-demand parking app called ParkWhiz. This app relies on Visa Token Services and Visa checkout. It is able to detect when an auto is low on fuel, directs the driver to a gas station, calculates the cost of a fill-up once the driver arrives, and allows authorization of the transaction from inside the vehicle. There are also possibilities to improve parking situations for the consumer using the parking app. The driver would press “park” on the app and walk away when in a public lot. Upon return, the driver would see the elapsed time and cost and press a button to complete the transaction. This technology would eliminate the need to take parking tickets or use parking pay boxes. There is also testing in the works regarding ordering and paying for food at a fast-food restaurant, leasing autos, managing tolls, and more using payment apps.
