2G credit cards by Citibank – do we really need them
Posted Under: Credit Card Trends,Fraud Prevention
Citibank has announced that they will be releasing a 2G (geek talk for second generation) credit card. The card will be equipped with a battery, buttons and lights. The stated goal is to increase security.
2G cards might increase security but I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard that. Today’s credit card thieves aren’t bored grade school kids. They’re intelligent high-tech people who make a nice living at what they do. It won’t surprise me to hear that they’ve figured it all out. It may just take them longer.
You can learn more about the cards here
I won’t go into the security features since there hasn’t been much written yet. The card, apparently is able to generate account numbers on the fly. That means that a number will only be valid for one transaction. That’s probably a good thing in theory but the “real” account number has to be somewhere. It would seem to me that Citibank (and whoever else climbs on the bandwagon) might be spending their time and money in rolling out the Chip and PIN cards.
One thing we know the new cards will do is make instant gratification impulse buying a lot easier. As this article aptly put it, “These new cards will be even “bigger enablers” of material overconsumption … ”
That’s what the credit card brands are really all about.
Reader Comments
No, we don’t need it and it’s likely to die out fast before we know it even existed.
If they expect people to pay more for such a card, I’d rather pay more for a secure card like Chip & PIN; the real 2G cards that’s fast becoming the global standard in the rest of the world for years.
At best this is 1.5G, it still retains the fifty year old magnetic stripe which any shmo can copy with $300 worth of equipment on eBay, same old easy to fraud dumb plastic that nobody else in the world is going to adopt.
Waste of my tax payer money. Gimme secure Chip & PIN, I’ll glady pay more for that than this marketing gimmick junk.