Visa Introduces a Credit Card on a Phone

Last week, Saul Hansell of NY Times Bits blog described how you can make your cellphone work like a credit card by applying a sticker to the back. The sticker, equipped with a radio frequency identification, or R.F.I.D., tag lets you wave the phone over a terminal to make a purchase.

This week Hansell explains how Visa's cellphone payment system is more than sticker-thin. The service is currently available only in Malaysia, but it will be expanded to other countries in coming years.

Like some phone payment schemes already used in Japan, the Visa service uses a chip on the phone to communicate with a payment terminal. But the latest version is based on a global standard for phones and telephones called near field communications.

Read full article.

emily | 8:23 AM | SMS and Banking |
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