Credit cards started out as simple pieces of cardboard. The first “modern” credit card was used by Frank McNamara in 1950 after he forgot his wallet one too many times. Instead, he started using the Diners Club Card to pay for his groceries and then paid off the balance at the end of the month.
McNamara probably didn’t think much of security at the time, considering he carried one of three credit cards in existence. Credit card fraud likely wasn’t even a new idea in the minds of thieves.
70 years and now more than 190 million US adults have a credit card in their name, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s 2023 Credit Card Report.
What started as cardboard has evolved a lot, but so have security issues. As credit card fraud and theft increased, security features evolved from simple signatures on a receipt to embedding microchips in cards to countless unprecedented artificial intelligence and machine learning protections.
Fingerprint verification before making a transaction is another security option that can eliminate physical card fraud altogether.
You already use biometric technology every day when you unlock your phone or log into your banking app, so how long will it take for this technology to touch your credit cards? Well, it’s already here, especially if you’re using a digital wallet or virtual card.
If you still use a physical credit card, you can request a biometric card from your bank. But this technology – and even the use of a physical card – already feels outdated. So do experts predict that 2025 will be the year of biometric cards? Maybe. But not in the way you might think.
What is a biometric?
Biometrics uses an analysis of your biological characteristics to confirm your identity. As a form of two-step authentication, biometric security scans your face, fingerprint, or iris to confirm that you’re, well, you.
This technology is widely used today to verify your identity at airports, hospitals and by various law enforcement agencies. Biometrics also help you unlock your mobile or laptop and sign you into your favorite apps.
Whatever form of biometric lock you use, a device first creates a template of your biometrics, such as your fingerprint, then stores it on the device and matches your scan to the template when you want to use it.
What about biometric credit cards?
Biometric cards may seem futuristic, but they’re actually just another step in a long evolution of credit card security features.
The first major advance in card technology came from the Europay, Visa and Mastercard chip, or EMV chip, which gained popularity in the US in the mid-2010s. The silver or silver chip on the face of your card reduced counterfeiting fraud by 76%, according to Visa.
Contactless payments then grew in popularity, followed by virtual and digital cards exploding in use in the 2020s. In Mastercard’s 2020 Global Payments Study, 79% of people said they use contactless payments, either through a digital wallet or tap-to-pay card functionality.
Biometrics is another layer of security that helps ensure that only you can use your credit card.
Some virtual cards and smartphones already use some form of biometric technology, allowing you to use your face or fingerprint to unlock your device or confirm a payment through your digital wallet.
How do biometric cards work?
Similar to how your biometrics are stored on the iPhone, your biometric information would be held inside a scanner on your physical credit card, rather than in the cloud somewhere in the hands of a company. When you go to pay for an item, you’ll place your fingerprint on your card’s scanner to authorize the transaction.
If the device is compromised or stolen, there is no way anyone can access your biometric data. Not even Visa would be able to access the face or fingerprint scan inside the card.
Visa has been working with biometric technology for decades and is now using biometrics to help digitize payments with Visa Payment Passkey – a digital payment experience that would house all your credit, debit and bank information.
“One of our key tenants for everything we’re doing in biometrics — both the Visa payment password and the biometric physical pattern on the card — is stored only on the individual device,” said Mark Nelsen, Global Head of Consumer Payments at Visa. CNET.
Because biometrics are just another form of authentication used with contactless payments, they will work with current contactless card readers.
Acceleration of credit cards
Biometric technology—even in credit cards—isn’t really new.
“I had a biometric card 10 years ago,” Nelsen said. “And I was very proud because I was using contactless payments when nobody knew what it was.”
But at that time, it was not a convenient way to pay. You need to put your finger on the built-in scanner, wait for it to work, then wait for the terminal to turn on and confirm your payment.
According to Nelsen, the technology has had some roadblocks on its way to mass implementation. If the purpose of these cards was to make payments easier and safer without sacrificing convenience, the technology wasn’t keeping up.
“Ten years ago, the way they thought this would work is you’d have a battery-powered card,” Nelsen said. “You would put your finger on the sensor and it would unlock the card, and then you could use it.”
While they were able to add a battery to the piece of plastic, it wasn’t as cheap as making a card without any fancy technology attached, nor did it fit as easily in your wallet or pocket. Today, they have found a way to charge the scanner with the card reader, without the need for a battery connection. So why don’t we all have a biometric card? They are expensive to produce.
“That’s why it took so long to perfect this,” Nelsen said. “It’s an expensive technology, and so the card itself is much more expensive than a traditional card.”
Are biometric credit cards more secure than other credit cards?
The thing is, biometric cards solve a problem that isn’t as prevalent as it once was: physical credit card fraud. While it still exists (this is your friendly reminder to check the gas station for card skimmers) physical fraud is not as common as it was just a few years ago.
At the time, cards used magnetic strips to hold card information and facilitate payments. Swiping your card was the primary way to pay, but mag strips were relatively easy to counterfeit. However, since the introduction of EMV chip cards, physical card fraud has decreased significantly.
In fact, 93% of fraudulent charges occurred while the card was still in the possession of its rightful owner, according to security.org. This means that bad actors were able to obtain your card information without having the actual credit card.
“There are so many other technologies now to really deal with that lost or stolen card problem, so you’re left with biometrics as a little bit more of a niche product for someone who is perhaps hyper-conscious security,” Nelsen said.
However, as unique as it is, there are those who would like to use this technology.
“I would absolutely love to see it and use it,” said Adam Levin, a security expert, author and co-host of the podcast What the Hack with Adam Levin. “From my perspective, no one can have enough arrows in our security quiver.”
Should you get a biometric card in 2025?
Technically, biometric credit cards are already here. If you’re particularly security-conscious, Nelsen said you can contact your bank to ask about getting a credit card with a fingerprint scanner.
He said Visa has a card with a biometric sensor on it that banks can claim on your behalf. “And if you used it, we’d know it [the transaction]. When it hits our network and we see the transaction, we will recognize it and process it,” he added.
Mastercard’s website says it is also working on biometric scanners on physical cards, but did not say whether the cards are currently available to the public. Instead, Mastercard said to ask your bank for more information, especially if you’re a premium customer.
Biometric card scanners are a “future solution” that would eliminate the need for a PIN or signature, Dennis Gamiello, executive vice president of identity at Mastercard, told CNET in an email response.
Will biometric credit cards be widely available in 2025?
While physical biometric cards may not see widespread adoption rates in the US, countries like the UK and Canada have different rules for credit card payments that could increase their use there.
“There are some markets around the world where you actually can’t use your plastic card up to a limit,” Nelsen said. “A biometric scan will allow you to overcome this limit.”
For example, Canada has a CA$100 limit on transactions. France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the UK all have a limit of €50. The US has no set national limit on what you can charge with a contactless payment.
While we may not see an influx of biometric cards in the US within the next few years, it is possible that we will see wider adoption in other countries. And if past advances in card technology have taught us anything, the US is usually several years behind what happens in other markets.
Look at contactless payments and EMV chip technology, for example. The first form of contactless payment was introduced in Seoul in 1995, but contactless payments did not hit the US until 2004. EMV chip technology was adopted by Europe in the 1990s, but was not widely adopted in the US until in 2015.
If you are interested in getting a biometric card, talk to your bank. In addition to Visa’s offerings, other card manufacturers, including Thales and SmartMetric, advertise biometric cards. But you’ll need your card issuer to request one.
Do biometric cards make sense given the rise of digital payments?
At least for the next few years, we’ll still likely have physical cards to carry in our wallets. While virtual credit cards, digital wallets and Visa Payment Passkey have done much to reduce the need for a physical card, experts don’t expect plastic and metal cards to completely disappear next year.
Nelsen said he doesn’t see physical cards going away for a long time. There are many markets and infrastructure set up around physical cards, so they aren’t going away anytime soon. However, he acknowledged that Visa is more focused on digital experiences.
“What is the future of cards in general?” Nelson said. “It depends on the market and the consumer. I think in general as more payments go digital, there’s not a physical plastic card to use. And so the trend would just continue to see more digital use cases and digital wallets.”
