Could this be the future of credit card payments?

September 11, 2007

When it comes to advances in technology, Japan is always the Country which leads the way. Now the country has come up with a new way to pay for your purchases safely and efficiently. It is not an overly new way of paying for things within the country, but it has been improved so that it links to retailers now too. So just what is it? Well it is a clever “Biometric technique” that allows you to identify yourself using the veins in your fingers.

This would certainly help to stop credit card fraud as you cannot lie to the detector. The main problem with credit card payments is that they require you to have a pin number. Even though the new chip and pin system made it more difficult for fraudsters to use your details, they can still get to see your pin as you type it in. So, credit card payments using a pin number are still not overly safe. With this new e-credit type of system that identifies you by the veins in your finger, you and only you can pay for your purchases.

Now the main concern which many people have shown is that criminals will resort to chopping people’s fingers off in order to get money. Whilst there may be criminals out there willing to do this, unfortunately for them the system only works with fingers that still have blood pumping around them. So it would be ineffective to use it unless the finger was attached to their own hand - veins and all!

Overall this new payment system is certainly very futuristic but it is nothing new to Japan. They have been using things like this for years for purchasing tings from vending machines. Now is the first time that retailers will also be able to access the system however and so it is still a big step up for Japan.