Linda Hall: New swipe cards pass me by

Have you seen the ad with All Blacks Richie McCaw, Ma'a Nonu and Ali Williams speeding around a shop flashing their card at a machine?

Cut to the biggest All Black fan in television history - Tim getting married. He sees the three men arrive and runs from his bride. "Fellas, you made it," he cries as he launches himself at them. Then he turns and says "Hey, check out the missus."

I have to admit I grin every time I see that ad. But what's it all about? What is this card you just have to flash in front of a machine, no pin number, nothing?

Well, this is the latest in banking - contactless technology known as tap and go or pay pass.

How times have changed ... we have gone from a world where most people got paid in cash, banked some for a rainy day and paid for everything else as we went along. Then came the chequebook. I still use mine occasionally (I'm showing my age now).

But most people still carried cash. Chequebooks were used to pay the bills.

Then came eftpos. Lots of people resisted this. I remember standing behind people in shops who had forgotten their pin numbers or punched in the wrong one. I swear it takes longer at the checkout now than it did 10 years ago.

By the time you swipe your card, put in your pin number, swipe Flybys or Onecards, then wait for the receipt to print it seems an age.

Now, just when it seems everyone is comfortable with Eftpos, we are faced with new technology.

The other ad on telly for this pay pass card shows a queue of people buying food at a cafe and then - sacre bleu - someone gets out cash to pay.

Not only does it slow everybody down, it is just a damned inconvenience for the person behind the counter. The message is cash is very uncool.

I asked a few people what they thought of pay pass cards. One person said they heard a friend of a friend had one in his wallet and when he walked past a machine it scanned.

I found that a little hard to believe. Surely the person would have to be just about sitting on the scanning machine.

Someone else said there is no way they would use one.

"How can it possibly be safe? What if you lost it? There is nothing stopping the person who picks it up from having a shopping spree on your behalf".

A good point.

So I did a bit of investigation.

Someone within the banking industry told me banks were just starting to roll out the new technology, so if you were due for a new card the replacement one would more than likely have the new chip in it. There would be instructions on how to activate it.

There had been a fair bit of resistance to them.

"People don't trust the unknown. And they have fears about security. However, if you dropped your card or it was stolen and you notified the bank straight away, you wouldn't be responsible for any unlawful purchases.

"All banks are pretty good with this. The cards have an $80 per purchase limit. I wouldn't mind one - the speed of it all appeals to me."

Well, I'm still not convinced. I wonder what will be next. Perhaps we will just have to touch the machine. Oh, no, can't do that, might get germs.

How about a smile then while the machine scans your eyes?

Watch this space.

Linda Hall is assistant editor of Hawke's Bay Today.

Mark Story's Morning Story column is taking a break.