Technology brings new and improved methods of speed, convenience, and security. Biometric cards incorporate all these features even though their physical appearance resembles like PIN or chip cards.
A biometric card consists of a circuit board and a fingerprint sensor that approves the transactions. It works similar to a smartphone, or iPhone fingerprint lock opener. However, it permits to approve a transaction.
Moreover, a biometric card doesn’t require an additional PIN or chip for a transaction. The card owners fingerprint act as the only method of money transferring. Besides this, it offers a large number of benefits.
5 Benefits of Biometric Cards
● Speed
Biometric cards help the owner become stress-free of memorizing four-digit codes, especially if they have multiple cards. Therefore, the speed of transaction approval from such cards becomes much faster than four, seven, and eight-digit cards.
Besides this, there are contactless payment terminals where a person can use biometric cards. So, getting out of the queue, especially in a hurry, becomes much more manageable. Online loans from direct lenders can even transfer the amount much faster to their borrowers.
● Security
According to sources, the cash fraud through current payment methods was £1 billion in 2017. Therefore, it is inevitable that the existing payment methods still suffer considerable drawbacks. The recent rise in card cloning, theft, and skimming has made cashless users concerned.
However, biometric card owners should know that there is no database for their cards. It only recognizes and authenticates transactions through the owner’s fingerprint. Moreover, the card consists of encryption and a number template.
Besides this, a biometric card instantly recognizes fake finger approvals through its electrical capacitive sensing. Therefore, fraudsters that attempt to use an artificial finger would fail in their attempts.
Furthermore, people who become victims of stolen or lost biometric cards shouldn’t worry because it would be authenticated only through the owner. However, to stay on the safer side, the owners must report such incidences to their bank.
The owner must also transfer the amount to a new account and issue a card to avoid any transaction possibilities.
● Convenience
One of the best features of a biometric card is that most providers have restricted payments to £30. However, it is consistent with all cashless transactions due to the rising security concerns. But the service providers would increase the limit once the issues get addressed.
According to sources, a few transaction card providers may even remove the transaction limit. Therefore, the checkout speed from stores would drastically improve. Additionally, the biometric cards don’t have a battery.
Instead, biometric cards get powered through card readers. So, people can make unlimited transactions through the same card without the inconvenience of changing it completely.
● Administration
Presently, banks indulge in high administrative costs for managing home card readers, customer identity verification, PIN generation, etc. However, with the launch of biometric cards, the expenses would drastically reduce.
The costs would reduce to optimizing the process and paperless transaction improvement processes. Therefore, contactless cards would become an asset for banks and financial institutions.
Unfortunately, the production costs of the technology would remain high until better solutions get found. However, the manufacturers have already found ways to make them compatible with the existing contact or contactless readers. Therefore, merchants wouldn’t incur costs in this area.
● Profile Onboarding
According to a source, forty per cent of consumers skip the profile onboarding process when they open a new account. However, with contactless iris scan and fingerprint cards, the onboarding would become complete and smooth.
Consumers can find most of the profile information complete in their bank accounts. Additionally, it would enhance ownership security as compared to the current methods. It would recognize the person’s account by scanning the iris or with a fingerprint signature.
Furthermore, we have already covered that these methods cannot get manipulated for now. But card providers must stay on high-alert for any fraudulent activities or attempts. If fraudsters find a solution, then customers’ money and life could get drastically endangered.
Concerns
Some experts have concerns about the existence and usage of biometric cards over gadgets and smartphones. Moreover, retailers face the significant problem of delivering contactless card machines to stores.
Besides this, service providers would increase expenditure because contactless cards cost more than the PIN or chip cards. Fortunately, the retailers might share the burden of the costs with the owners during the ordering process.
But the demand for fingerprint technology and biometrics voice recognition based cards is relatively high. According to sources, Mastercards, a prominent transaction card manufacturer conducted tests for biometric cards in 2017.
The test was held in South Africa, and in 2019, the company did trials in Bulgaria. Similarly, Visa underwent trials with the Mountain American Credit Union, Utah and Bank of Cyprus. In 2019, Gemalto, a digital security firm, said that it talked with a few financial institutions in the UK.
Moreover, companies that provide loans without guarantor from a direct lender or other money lending options are looking at the transaction future. However, fraudsters and hackers found many methods of targeting people even with the existing norms.
Therefore, biometric card providers must not underestimate the money market criminals before bringing the technology into the market.
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