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Consumers looking for a way to transform their credit, debit, and loyalty cards into electronic versions soon will have a new option with the impending shipment of the WocketWallet.
Developed by Shelton, Conn.-based Nxt-ID Inc., Wocket enables consumers to scan information from their payment cards, and other commerce cards, into the device using an included card reader. In all, WocketWallet can store up to 10,000 cards on its encrypted chip.
Then, to make a payment or scan a loyalty card stored in a Wocket, the user selects the card from the touch screen. The device writes the specific data to a card, called the WocketCard, fitted into a slot on the Wocket. The user removes the WocketCard and completes a transaction using a point-of-sale terminal’s magnetic-stripe reader. Accessories for the WocketWallet also include space for similarly sized cards, such as a driver’s license.
In the case of bar codes, the consumer selects the appropriate card from the Wocket touch screen, which then displays that bar code to hold next to a scanner. All data stored on WocketWallet is protected by the user’s voice recognition biometric.
The WocketWallet was available for pre-order at $149.99 earlier this year. Gino Pereira, chief executive, says those orders are expected to ship by the end of the month. He would not say how many devices were sold. “We wanted to keep it to manageable numbers,” Pereira tells Digital Transactions News, noting that the company sought early adopters in the marketing effort.
There are similar card-storage devices, such as Coin, a plastic card with a magnetic stripe that can hold credentials for up to eight payment or loyalty cards, and interactive cards from Dynamics Inc. that can store multiple card numbers, but they are restricted to ones that work with magnetic-stripe readers.
The WocketWallet, Pereira says, has the advantage of working with bar codes, too. “We are a wallet replacement,” Pereira says, who also views Wocket as an alternative to smart-phone mobile wallets. “We’re not just putting payments on a phone.”
Wocket classifies the WocketWallet as a wearable device, Pereira says.
Yet, unlike many smart-phone mobile wallets that only enable digital card storage if the issuer has an agreement with the wallet provider, Wocket works with all cards, Pereira says. “We have a system that is agnostic as to who the issuer is, and their commercial interests.”
Already Wocket is working on the next version of the digital wallet, including the ability to transmit a one-use encrypted number that protects the card number beyond the physical element, Pereria says. The company is in discussion with financial institutions about this feature.
Wocket also is paying attention to digital representations of official identification cards. Iowa, for example, is developing an app-based driver’s license for smart phones, according to the Des Moines Register.
If states allow app-based driver's licenses, that could make it easier for consumers to add these digital IDs to their WocketWallets, Pereira surmises. “We’ve been a champion of this for a while,” he says.
Not all, however, share Pereira’s optimism about consumer demand for the WocketWallet.
“I’m not sure this is solving a problem that needs a solution,” says George Peabody, a senior analyst at Glenbrook Partners, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based consultancy. “There’s not too many of us walking around with a ‘George Costanza’ wallet,” an allusion to the character on the “Seinfeld” television show who stuffed his wallet with scores of receipts and cards.
WocketWallet also will face competitive challenges because offerings from Coin and Dynamics are already in the market, according to Peabody.
