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Britt Erica Tunick is an award winning financial journalist who has spent the past 17 years writing about virtually every aspect of finance. She has mastered the art of boiling down complicated financial topics for readers to understand. |
Tired of carrying your wallet? With wearable’s such as wristbands with radio-frequency identification chips and chip imbedded ceramic rings, the need to carry around a bulky wallet will be a thing of the past. Who Needs a Wallet? By Britt Erica Tunick When it comes to innovation on the payment front it seems that there are endless options for consumers. As you are no doubt aware, it is now possible to replace your wallet with your cell phone using Apple Pay or several other mobile payment services that have sprung up in recent years. Meanwhile, destinations such as Disney World have put their own twist on mobile payments by eliminating the need for consumers to even have to carry around their cell phones. Instead, Disney World visitors are able to make purchases using what Disney calls Magic Bands, which are disposable silicone gel bands embedded with radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips that can be programmed with everything from their wearer’s contact information, to their credit card details. If that wasn’t cool enough for you, Visa is taking things to a whole new level. Visa recently announced that it has created rings that operate like prepaid debit cards, which it plans to test by distributing them to the 45 Olympic athletes the credit card company is sponsoring before rolling them out to the general public at a later point in time. Much like Disney’s Magic Bands, the ceramic rings, which are being made in white and black, are embedded with technology that will allow users to make payments by holding them over a sensor on a credit card reader. Unlike Magic Bands, however, which are embedded with batteries that are only supposed to last for about two years, the Visa rings don’t use batteries and instead contain secure microchips. In fact, not only do the rings not need to be charged, they can actually be immersed in water as deep as 164 feet. Needless to say, if carrying around a wallet just isn’t your thing it is getting easier and easier to avoid having to do so. |
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