Credit and debit cards Jathon

Credit and debit cards

Jathon Sapsford writes about credit and debit card use, in today's Wall Street Journal.

• in 1970, 16% of households had cards, today 73% do.


• Credit and debit cards were used in 52% of in-store consumer payments in 2003, up from 43% in 1999.


• 20% of U.S. GDP is attributed to card purchases.


• About 60% of holders fail to pay off their balances each month and pay the interest, 40% don't.


• Much of the article deals with the ubiquity of credit and debit cards: for example, (at least some) Wisconsin state troopers carry card readers and can collect payments for traffic tickets at the time they pull you over.


• The Navy issued MasterCards to the 5,000 sailors on the aircraft Carrier Harry S. Truman this year. On payday the sailors load up their cards.  Then they can use them for all shipboard (and many on-shore) purchases. Soft drink machines are card operated, saving the Navy the effort of collecting and redistributing a half ton of quarters each month. There's even a card swiper in the chapel for offerings.


• This past March, McDonalds agreed to begin accepting the cards.


• People selling food in the stands at last year's SuperBowl carried portable swipers that worked with a cellphone.

But the cards themselves may not long outlast the cash and checks they are replacing:

"More technological innovation is coming, and plastic itself may eventually fall into disuse.  After all, it is the numbers carried on plastic, not the plastic cards themselves, that are necessary to complete transactions. Since cards are susceptible to theft and fraud, the industry is working on "biometric" idnetification techniques.  Computers would link credit-card numbers, housed on an electronic database, to unique body parts such as fingerprints, irises or facial characteristics.

Card industry executives envision consumers being identified at cash registers with devices such as fingerprint readers or eye scanners, which would replace the signature or PIN number that consumers currently use to verify identity.

Online shoppers might identify themselves by pressing fingers to a silicon wafer embedded in the keyboard, which would read the fingerprint, match it online with a copy held by bank or merchant, then authorize the sale...."