CES 2018: This high-tech credit card can store multiple accounts

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One of the constant fears of travelers is that they’ll lose their credit card — either  misplace it while they’re out and about or, worse, have it it disappear from the hotel room. But a new connected card may just swipe all of those worries away.

Money expert Clark Howard and team are working this week from CES, the world’s largest consumer electronics show, where they were introduced to a new type of credit card called the Wallet Card.

The Wallet Card: Connected card can store multiple accounts

The card, made by Cheswick, Pennsylvania-based financial technology company Dynamics Inc., has some major components that separate it from the rest of the market: It has an organically rechargeable battery, account numbers that are digitally displayed and a cell phone chip similar to a smartphone.

The true genius of it is that the card can store multiple accounts — effortlessly toggling between a debit, credit or reward card account on its screen — and features an online data connection that allows banks to instantly change your credit card numbers, making it pretty useless if it falls into the wrong hands. It can also be programmed to notify you of coupons or bank balances and purchases, adding value to the consumer.

“Think of everything that you carry in your wallet today and your mobile phone combined onto one card,” a company rep told Clark radio show Executive Producer Kim Drobes. “What this card does is allows the bank to communicate with the card, shut it off, deactivate it, but also reactivate it after the person holding it has been authenticated and download an effectively new card.”

The Wallet Card is creating some serious buzz in the credit card world, having locked up a branding deal with Visa as its first partner and striking accords with international banks.

“Innovation in the payments category is not limited to wearables, cars, security or mobile technology — there is still much that can be done to update the card-based experience, which continues to be the primary form factor used globally to complete digital payments transactions,” Mark Nelsen, senior vice president of risk and authentication products with Visa, said in a news release.

How to get it: The card hasn’t been issued yet. You can sign up at GetWalletCard.com for notifications on when the card will be available.

Clark’s takeway: “This process of coming up with new ways for us to use credit cards is so important to you and me as consumers. It’s obviously important as well to the banks,” he said. “The fact that we cannot trust payment systems today is a real problem and solutions like this are going to go a long way to restoring trust, and making the use of payment systems like credit cards so much safer.”

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