As our friends at CERN fire up the Large Hadron Collider, playing around with protons, black holes , quarks, in search for the ever elusive Higgs boson; a quick glance at our most recent Credit Card statement confirms that there’s no fuzzy math involved here, the bill is due when it says it’s due, in the amount stated, or else late fees and increased interest rate will burn a deep whole into our finances.

And we at Credit Cards Mojo can’t help but wonder what the future holds for credit cards.  Connecting the dots of what are the usual steps in the path of innovation, we see that things always get smaller, simpler, easier, more convenient and pervasive.  We believe that Michael Capellas, CEO of First Data, might be on to something when he says  that the next iteration of credit cards might be no credit card at all.  Instead he advocates to embed a personalized chip, called GO-tag, in some of the portable electronics that we use every day like the cell phone or the iPod, so that when we need to pay for gas, clothing, or even sodas at a vending machine, just putting the cell phone over the proper sensor will finalize the transaction.

If you look around the idea is not that far fetched. Some issuers already have shrunk the size of the card to fit comfortably on your keychain, and some others have embedded RFID technology into conventional cards so that you only need to “tap” your card at the point of sale to pay for your purchase, and if the bill is less than $25.00 there’s no signature needed.

So, what will it mean to you and I?
For one it will increase security, embedded into a cell phone, in case of loss the chip-card can be suspended in real time, you could even do it yourself from the web.
Greater adoption rate will drive transaction costs down.
And those two factors above will result into lower costs to you and I in the form of lower fees and lower interest rates.

Great convenience: if the card can be used for smaller transactions like vending machines, will there be a need to carry a wallet anymore when just a skinny document holder for driver’s license and library card will do? Going to the office or going on vacation just taking your phone with you will do.

It’s true, the future is not what it used to be!

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