Hot on the heels of Square, an iPhone add-on for making payments on the go, Visa has announced In2Pay, an iPhone case that contains a chip to allow users to provide pamyent on the go by swiping their iPhone.
The add-on plugs into the bottom of the iPhone and allows you to insert a MicroSD card. With an app from the App Store, you can swipe your iPhone over a terminal, enter a password and voila, no need for that cumbersome credit card in your wallet.
There are of course, a number of downsides. Since the iPhone currently does not support multitasking, you must open the app, wait for it to load, hold your phone over the terminal, hit 'pay' and then enter a password, all which surely takes as much time, if not more, than signing a credit card receipt.
Additionally, the case requires a MicroSD card holder, so the bulk of your iPhone is increased, if only by a small margin.
Ultimately this kind of payment method is the future, but merchant service operators like Visa must take responsibility for these transactions becoming quicker, simpler and more standardized - there's little benefit to leaving the Visa at home if you still need to take the Mastercard with you.
Source: MobileCrunch
