American Express Membership Rewards - Linking CC to Cell Phone

There was a piece about linking your credit card account to your cell phone so that when you wish to pay for something you simply wave your cell phone in front of a sensor located in front of the cashier.

The "experts" believe that this will be common practice by the end of 2007 and nearly universal during 2008. I think this is a great idea by the way, much more secure than carrying different credit cards in your wallet and much more convenient.

In any case this got me thinking, what will be the incentive for Amex Plat/Cent members to keep the card, keeping in mind that many many plat/cent cardemmbers carry it for the prestige and not for the dwindling services that American Express offers its "most valauble members".

Does anyone anticipate that when this technology becomes more widely available many plat/cent will just drop the card and choose a less expensive one, will Amex dramtically improve the quality and range of services?

Any thoughts on this?
Kasop

I assume you are referring to an article similar to this one ...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/04/10/BUGROI5NN41.DTL

It appears a phone would initially be linked to a single payment account. In the tests described in the article the account details are stored in a chip which is not electronically integrated with the phone itself, it's just embedded in the cover. It sounds as if this would eventually change, and I imagine the system could then support multiple accounts and allow the user to specify which one to use for a specific purchase, but this would probably entail navigating menus and entering a PIN or password.

I expect most people would opt to link a single account to a phone to make routine purchases - and that card issuers would compete vigorously for that position - but carry additional physical cards for particular circumstances, including those where the "prestige" element of a card might offer a benefit.

dennis

I assume you are referring to an article similar to this one ...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/04/10/BUGROI5NN41.DTL

It appears a phone would initially be linked to a single payment account. In the tests described in the article the account details are stored in a chip which is not electronically integrated with the phone itself, it's just embedded in the cover. It sounds as if this would eventually change, and I imagine the system could then support multiple accounts and allow the user to specify which one to use for a specific purchase, but this would probably entail navigating menus and entering a PIN or password.

I expect most people would opt to link a single account to a phone to make routine purchases - and that card issuers would compete vigorously for that position - but carry additional physical cards for particular circumstances, including those where the "prestige" element of a card might offer a benefit.

dennis

Ill tell you when I was in Sweden they were doing a test on a coke machine for this exact technology. The way it worked was a customer would walk up to the machine and input the machine number ex: *1234# then following that thier pin that is associated with the account. But this was primarly for charging the coke to your phone bill. so one would walk up and if they wanted to get a Root Beer they would put *1234#PIN# and it would send a signal to that machine to charge the account and thats it.

its possable I just dont see it being done in the near future in the US. We are so far behind in our technology its almost embarrasing

I may be in the minority here, but why would anyone get a card simply to impress a waiter/waitress or a clerk at a store or hotel check-in?

I thought the Centurion was a pretty good value when it was $1500 and for that $1500 you received a decent bunch of elite status and a rock solid concierge service. Now that its $1000 more, and the elite memberships are beginning to vanish, are people still seeing value in the $2500 fee?