Everything is different and everything will continue to change. That is a tough pill to swallow for some, another one of life’s painful truths. Think about Uber’s quick rise to normalcy seemingly out of nowhere. Prior to 2013, we knew nothing about the company or service and taxi cabs were just the standard. Now-a-days, Uber is the ultra-convenient and accepted way to travel, the “why did it take this long to think of this” company.
Looking forward to the end of 2016, companies and technologies you have yet to even hear about may be services you begin to use daily. Even though we tend to resist change, we are beginning to adopt new technologies and services faster than ever before. While the future cannot be predicted, judging by the way we are leaving 2015, this coming new year could be the year the way you pay completely changes.
EMV is now a standard:
Finally catching up with the rest of the world, 2015 will silently be known as the year of the EMV Liability Shift. All throughout the world, EMV credit cards are the standard issued and accepted methods of payment for credit card transactions. Soon, the world will be completely phased out of the magnetic striped credit cards and we will only use EMV.
Even though the deadline for businesses to switch to EMV happened in October, EMV chip card readers throughout the US are still being adopted and distributed. To be EMV compliant, a business must have the ability to accept EMV chip cards but not every business had made the switch yet. 2016 will still be a transitional year for this change but it’s safe to assume that by the end of 2016, you’ll have more EMV credit cards in your wallet than the standard magnetic striped credit cards. And a lot more businesses will be requiring cards to be inserted as opposed to swiped.
Paying with your Smart Phone:
Prior to 2015, the idea of paying with anything using your smart phone seemed ridiculous. And as the year went on, not much has changed. Chance are (currently) that 9 out of 10 of your friends have not yet paid for anything via their smart phone. People intuitively resist even more when it involves their credit card. This will all change and 2016 could be a crucial year for these changes to happen.
Social Network Payments:
Both SnapChat and Facebook made power moves this year allowing for peer-to-peer payments within their apps. This is only the beginning of what is to come. Facebook has been testing some additional features such as replacing the Messaging icon on their mobile app with a Shopping icon that directs you to Facebook’s Marketplace. Right now, shopping through Facebook seems a bit out of the ordinary but seeing these new options currently being tested, Facebook may be positioning itself as a direct competitor to Amazon and the way we use the network will forever change.
As stated in the beginning, everything is different and everything will continue to change. Knowing that the future will continue to change, maybe try looking for the benefits within the changes as opposed to focusing on negatives.
Authored By: Pat Hanavan
