''Are you ready to throw your cards?'' - Disruption in the Cards Industry

You want to buy that new shiny latest model of iPhone from Apple store. And as you take out your wallet to pay the bill, you are bewildered – 3 credit cards and 2 debit cards – which one to use? Obviously, debit card doesn’t make sense – but wait! There is an offer which says, 10% additional cashback on debit card payment and another one says – ‘Earn 10x loyalty points with Credit card payment’. That changes some calculations – 3 different credit cards with loyalty points or debit card with cashback.

Did I mention, 3 different credit cards and their payment cycles. And are you thinking about credit score impact, due to different credit card approved limit and utilized fund?

With so many perspectives coming into the picture – you probably just swipe your favorite color card! (Not really, but that is what I did!)

Average American carries 3 active credit cards and 2 debit cards, according to CreditKarma research. Consumers still struggle to select right card for the right transaction in order to maximize additional benefits offered by card issuer or merchants. However, the pain point is not yet highlighted because lot of stakeholders in Payment industry still consider payment cards as a privilege.

However, the future of Payment Industry – AI driven One Card/App fits all – solution is not so far. This innovation will eliminate the need to carry multiple cards physically as well as auto-select the best card/account in order to give maximum benefit to consumer.

Foundational elements are already in place where the opportunity has been identified by few ‘Over the top banking platform’ fintech. Fuze Card (https://fuzecard.com/) has enabled consumer to combine all cards securely in one place and then consumer selects the right card just before transaction. Curve Card (https://www.curve.com/) offers single card and app which combines all cards into one card and completes the transaction based on consumer pre-defined preference.

Curve card has partnered with MasterCard and ApplePay. The customer base has crossed 1 million mark in European territory and is all set to launch USA by end of 2020.

Latest trends as per Deloitte report quotes that digital payments—for transactions on the web or via mobile apps—have been growing at an impressive rate. In fact, in 2019, the value of digital transactions globally reached US$4.1 trillion. Some experts believe that it is leading to slow death of plastic money, nevertheless credit instrument will keep on rolling through digital format – digital and contactless credit card.

The next step in this evolution cycle is the introduction of machine learning and artificial intelligence into the payment industry. There will be zero manual intervention and the new universal card will automatically select the best card for transaction without any hard-coded preferences from the consumer.

Some aspects that Payment industry should look forward to solving are additional value benefits like instant discount, cashback, loyalty point calculations, credit score impact, payment cycles, etc.

Data/account balance information as well as payment posting among various bank credit/debit cards, checking/savings accounts is already enabled by Payments Services Directive (PSD2) or Open Banking equivalent initiatives.

All payment specific regulations are already addressed successfully by fintech like Curve and Fuze. Payment network provider are actively looking at the new development and adjusting themselves for settlement of transactions. Some aspects like various fees and charge-back issues are like one day agenda items for negotiations.

Once machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence sit on top of these, then the day is not too far to have a single app or card to control all your expenses without your intervention! And guess what – it might have your favorite color theme as well!