Engadget - Comments for
Engadget Comments for
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This is marketed as a more convinient way of using your charge car, possibly even as a time saver. But when it comes down to it, its another excuse to use your Visa card. First of all the novelty will no doubt increase the usuage of these cards over the traditonal Visa card for a few months. Secondly, the added convinience will give users another reason to use their "blink" card in situations where they really don't necessarily need to.
In my opinion, the blink card is another step by Chase in their quest for world domination. Be careful, very careful. - Comments on
Well I hope they've developed some good security around these cards. The Mobile Speedpass has been shown that it can be hacked and spoofed. I do see that they'd be valuable in that my magnetic strip is always wearing to the point where I have to request new cards, and there's always the reader here and there that won't read cards reliably. I do think you'll still be required to open your wallet though to show ID to use the card. - Comments on
German universities have been using a similar thing for some time in the cafeterias. It's not a bank card, it's a card explicitly for cafeteria usage. However, it works in every university cafeteria within the city and on most vending machines in and around the university, too.
The first difference, though, is that the card has to be very close to the receiver to make your payment. You have to place it on a special terminal. It's cool, you can leave it in your portemonnaie (some people left their card in their moneybags so long, that they have problems finding them when they want to actually get them out for whatever purpose) but you have to place your portemonnaie onto the terminal.
The second difference: it's prepaid, and it's dedicated to a special purpose. The (small) amount of money on it is already paid to central cafeteria billing and you can only pay food with it.
A bank card? Nah, there currently still seems to be too much risk. Not yet. - Comments on
I don't think there too much risk in that (1) the cards are relatively low power and need to be in close proximity of the reader, (2) there's no credit card data stored on the card itself (there are encrypted codes that are sent to the reader. The reader decrypts the codes, but needs to relay those codes through to the processor in order for the transaction to be charged and approved.) I have paypass from Citi and it works in the same manner, except that they use a keyfob. - Comments on
I'd be a little worried about it, at least until I understood it better.
Anyway, I'm not going to be using that kind of technology until it's conviently merged into my cell phone so I don't have to carry my wallet around anymore. I hope by that time, my knowledge of this technology will be better. - Comments on
i would. its their problem if money is somehow stolen, and since youre one of the first ones (and write for a huge blog) they would probably be quick in getting stolen funds back to you. plus it would be kinda cool to be able to just wave the card to buy stuff. - Comments on
I think the question is whether you have a choice. Will Chase let you continue to use your old card? Last time I had a bank send me a credit card uninvited it was to switch my Visa to a Mastercard. So now I have two Citibank Mastercards and no Visa, which is pointless. I called to tell them I didn't want it and they said "tough, we're not using Visa anymore."
Usually if a bank just up and sends you a card, it's because they *want* you to *stop* using your old one and start using the new one. They may not even allow you to keep your old one, even if the expiration date is not for a couple years. Banks have a lot of leeway to do stuff like that.
Of course, the solution in that case is to just cancel the card and get another one somewhere else. - Comments on
PS- and I believe all of the contactless payment methods all have a cap ($25-$50) on the transaction amounts that don't require signature. - Comments on
Cut it up (although is cutting it up sufficient since it has an RFID tag?). The incredibly minor benefit is not worth the rather substantial annoyance (if your credit info is hijacked). - Comments on
Is there any labeling on the card or other way to identify that a RFID chip is present?
I don't see any obvious hints to this on my card, so thankfully it looks like I don't have one of these. - Comments on
I voted against, but not for the reasons given. I'd say don't use it because it's a completely pointless security risk. Scam artists won't be prevailant till the cards are, but if it can be hacked it will be, eventually.
It might not be as big of a security risk as some people are making it out to be, but honestly, how much of a risk is it worth to wave a card 4 inches from a device rather than slide it through a scanner?
Given the imprecision of the range of the scanners, I won't even be terribly surprised if it's more of a pain in the ass to use in some ways than the very precise act of sliding a card through a scanner.
My guess is, this will end up about as "convenient" as the touch screen number pads on the ATM machines at Safeway, which are so lousy at detecting fingers that you have to use the little plastic pen they give you instead. - Comments on
Sounds to risky. Don't do it! I'd wait till the technology is more secure. - Comments on
"Portemonnaie" sounds gay.
Anyway, the bigger question is, why do banks want you to use it? How is it more secure, or in what possible way does it save the bank money? Any ideas? - Comments on
I think Chris in #1 hit the nail on the head. Is the ~1 sec difference in "pull your card out of the wallet and hold it near the scanner" and "pull your card out of the wallet and swipe it" that much of a convenience especially when compared with the huge security risk? It's like someone suggesting it'd be better to leave our cars unlocked and running in the parking lot for the convenience of not having to deal with unlocking and starting.
This is purely for the neato cool factor which I admit I will often fall for, but definately not this time. - Comments on
I think it would be more secure if it only worked when your finger/thumb was on the card/phone in a specific place. - Comments on
couldnt someone just make one of those readers except on a 30-40 feet radius and stand at the entrance from a mall and steal all numbers - Comments on
I say if you have time to wave the card its about the same amount of time to swipe it the old fashioned way and also much safer. - Comments on
How lazy and weak have we become? Swiping is now too hard. The friction of pulling the card through the grooves is just to much for some people to overcome? Sheesh. - Comments on
Here's the Chase blurb about it:
Q: How does blink work?
A: Chase cards with blink include an embedded chip and an antenna, which allows for payment information to be read over extremely short distances by a reader at the point of sale. The chip holds the same information that the traditional magnetic strip does. To use a Chase card with blink, the cardmember simply holds his/her card bnear an enabled point-of-sale terminal at checkout, rather than swiping the card or handing it to the cashier. Moments after the cardmember holds his/her Chase card with blink near the terminal, the point-of-sale terminal will emit a tone and a visual indicator lights up, or "blinks," to signal payment confirmation. All other aspects of the transaction are handled in the same way as a traditional cred