User:Newzack/Disruptive payment technology

Disruptive payment systems seek to alter the ways that customers give money to merchants. In most cases this refers to a system seeking to eliminate the conventional credit cards system.

Examples
PayPal is often described as being a disruptive payment system. Where Mastercard, as an example, takes precautions to ensure the safety of their customer's funds, the internet has created methods for criminals to steal money from cardholders faster than Mastercard has been able to provide solutions for the problem. PayPal has taken advantage of this situation and provides a more secure system for online purchases. When PayPal moved their customer base from primarily using credit cards for payments to using direct bank withdrawals, they cut out Mastercard as an intermediary, as well as other credit card providers.

Square, Inc is a company that provides a small device that attaches to a smartphone and allows the smartphone owner to receive money directly from anyone who has a credit card. In this way they are allowing any unprofessional individual to become a merchant, and so bypassing the necessity of being a brick and mortar business or any kind of business at all in order to accept credit card payments.

There are a number of companies working on using near field communication to make e-wallet systems that would allow cell phone users to use a cell phone to pay for things, such as a can of soda from a vending machine, instead of a credit card or cash. This could eliminate the need to carry a wallet and could possibly replace credit cards.