Who doesn't love the Jetsons? They had just about every far-flung technological idea imaginable, including hovercrafts, personal robot slaves and cities in the sky...but they didn't have 0% interest credit cards. Even the Jetsons were still using cash in 2062! We may not have reached the Jetson's level of space-age sophistication quite yet, but we've certainly got them beat in the payments department. So what kind of technological advancements will the next 50 years bring us in credit, credit cards, and credit scoring techniques?
As I was thinking of how to respond to my own rhetoric, I brainstormed a bit and produced a pretty exhaustive list including: NFC chips, retina scanners, fingerprint identification technology, voice and DNA recognition, in-flesh microchip embedding, mortgage checking accounts, and even 401k or IRA credit cards. I also think we'll clearly see hundreds of mobile apps developed for exchanging funds electronically via mobile devices. Similarly, I also thought about general market predictions which will have an impact on credit, credit cards, credit scoring, mortgage rates and overall monetary flow and investing. This side of the equation could stress you out, especially if you tend to believe all the apocalyptic, hyper-inflation-touting scarecrows out there. If you are on the far end of the believing spectrum, you probably tore up all your credit cards when you paid them off back in late 2008 after the bottom dropped out of the market. The fact is there will always be a group of creative and motivated entrepreneurs looking for ways to build new financial instruments and promote them to the masses. Personally, I don’t see things changing too drastically. Slow developments will most likely be the norm, but I do see mobile devices replacing wallets as the biggest leap in the credit card markets since plastic first came of age. Certainly greater regulation may infiltrate the market as governmental agencies continue to attempt to protect the consuming populace from predatory financial products. In addition, I could even see credit eventually becoming something that is managed in the cloud and recognized through something as simple as a retina scan or finger print. Frankly, that sounds more like Minority Report than the Jetsons! Have you given it some thought? If so, what do you see in the future of credit?
Photo credit: alphaspirit
