PREPAID CARDS
Phone credit card technology mooted
The University of Surrey is looking into ways to make mobile phones the credit cards of the future.
Whilst technology already exists in Japan and the USA, the idea of using mobile phones as credit cards is still to take off in this country.
However, the university have announced that there won't be a quick fix – it could be between five and 15 years until all the elements are right to make the technology work.
Their research has shown that people are more likely to trust their mobile phones than finance companies, whilst the credit card providers themselves would welcome the technology, as it would save them millions as they wouldn't have print out the physical cards.
However, it is security concerns that remain the biggest stumbling block. Due to the wide range of mobile phones on the market, there are lots of individual security issues to overcome.