Plastc – Too Good To Be True?

Plastc is a new electronic payment device, which wants to make your life easier. Plastc stores all your credit cards, loyalty and gift cards on the one card, but is the size and shape of a normal credit card, fitting easily into your wallet. It pairs with an app on your phone, on which you can store an unlimited amount of cards, whereas the actual electronic device only stores 20 cards at any one time. You can toggle between your cards through a touch screen to decide which one to pay with and then swipe or use your PIN as normal when paying.  Impressively, Plastc plans to launch with seven partner banks, including American Express, Citi and Chase, and supports Apple Pay and Google Wallet.

No one will deny that that is a lot of information stored on one card, the first question that comes to mind is, “Is that secure?” but the Plastc device has a PIN lock and must be synced to a smartphone at all times so if you (perhaps unknowingly) become separated from your card, you will receive proximity alerts to you phone. After a certain period of time away from your card, it automatically deletes all data on the card. The app will also and impressively have facial recognition technology to verify identity when dealing with sensitive data.

This is a truly revolutionary product. Storing all cards in one would solve many a problem of today’s lifestyle. But is this all too good to be true? It may very well be. There is currently no functioning prototype for Plastc, and it is planned for release in less than a years time. A similar card, Coin, launched in 2013 and was due to be shipped last year, however was pushed back to 2014 for reasons not given, however Coin has still at least been beta tested.

The security protection does seem extremely convincing, however as a fraud and risk specialist, I see a couple of flaws here. I know how easy it is to retrieve PIN details, and one PIN on the card itself is perhaps not safe enough. Most worryingly, perhaps, is that apps can be hacked. This is nothing new, there have been many incidents of computer hacking and the release of sensitive information in recent years and this app could be the perfect target for cyber criminals. Another possible problem is that if your battery on your phone dies then one assumes the card doesn’t work anymore. Plastc wants to become the only card you need when you are out, but if the card only works when it is synced to your phone and the phone is technically “dead”, then the only form of payment you have for the night is gone.

Facial recognition seems very “Minority Report” too, but I wonder, if it is so easy to implement, why is this futuristic type of security not available everywhere now? If, and when, Plastc is released in 2015, will this technology actually be on the app or will it be simply too difficult to implement?

Another possibly fatal flaw is that Plastc is only supposed to have a 30-day battery life. If you simply forget to charge it or lose Plastc, you could find yourself stuck with no way to get home for the night.

I don’t think Plastc will fully replace a normal credit card. As we can see there are many possible flaws that can occur with Plastc. People always prepare for the worst-case scenario and will probably always carry a normal credit card as well as Plastc, thereby not fully solving the problem of no cards needed. I think mobile payment technology, especially Apple Pay, will take off much quicker than Plastc as people usually always have their phones with them, making Plastc redundant.

Until something like this is fully trustworthy, I do not think I want to be the one to road test is and find myself stuck. If it works, I think it is fantastic. Let’s keep an eye out for when Summer 2015 comes around, we will either results or the stalling of a too-good-to-be-true idea.