Credit Card Issuers Getting More Creative

Wall Street

Journal

As credit card issuers compete for yourbusiness, they are coming up with inventiveways to set themselves apart from thepack and offer options to the standardcredit card. According to the , in 2006 Citibank plans to introducea money clip that acts as a credit cardby waving it in front of a sensor when youmake a purchase. Meanwhile, MasterCardis developing jewelry and watches thatfunction as credit cards. These devices utilizeradio-frequency technology linked upto the customer's bank or credit cardaccounts. While paying for your new shoeswith your watch seems hip, the traditionalcredit card isn't dead yet. Although the listis growing, only a few stores have thetechnology to accept the gadgets. Also,market research has shown that consumersprefer using their wallet to usingtheir key chain when shopping. Regardless,most people have more than onecredit card, so the radio-frequency deviceswon't replace every card in your wallet.