With the advent of the internet, technology that no longer requires you to swipe your credit card, you can simply wave it, and so much of consumer banking now being done online, there is no doubt a change in the air for traditional credit card and gift card payments. So if I am switching to a virtual wallet and using coupon codes, then why would I keep traditional gift cards in my real wallet, when all they do is take up real estate that is already limited?
Since I know the holidays are coming up, I am certain I will have a few family members and friends that will request gift cards which some people say is impersonal, but I often am not worried about that. My gift is from the heart and I want to get my family and friends something that is easy to ask for, easy for me to remember, and easy to use. Recently I have noticed the rise in gift codes. Website are now selling virtual gift cards by sending out a virtual gift card to an email or Facebook and then that can be used for any online property. Not only is this easier on my, but half the time, with my family, I get them gift cards for stores that are geographically nowhere near them, so I am certain they are using most of the gift card, if not all of it, online anyway.
Recently Google announced they would be licensing Visa’s payWave technology. With this we are moving even closer to removing clunky gift cards from our real wallet and placing them in our virtual wallet. This is making our lives’ easier and leads me to believe that the gift cards and credit cards of the future will be embedded in our phones and make plastic gift card and plastic credit cards seem as ancient as gift certificates.
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