Pay By Touch allows customers to do just that--pay for purchases or cash checks with just the touch of a finger.
The finger is the most unique form of identification people possess because it cannot be copied or stolen. With Pay By Touch, a customers' finger links them to bank and credit card accounts by using a simple process of finger scanning at the point of sale, eliminating the need to carry cards, checks or cash.
"The motivation for starting and pursuing this kind of business is a greater need for secure transactions," said Tara Rayder, senior marketing manager of the California-based company.
Pay By Touch, which established in 2002, allows customers to create a "wallet" that contains all personal information and holds financial account information. Customers may enroll as many accounts as they want. All the information in a customer's Pay By Touch wallet is encrypted and stored at secure IBM data centers, which retailers never access to for marketing purposes.
Customers can also store their shopper's club cards and membership cards and be able to receive points and discounts.
After a quick one-time sign-up, the customer puts their finger on a scanner and enters a seven-digit search number. The system then recognizes available ways to pay.
The Pay By Touch eCheck system allows customers to pay using a direct link to their checking account without having to use any id or pin number. Customers can also get cash back as they would with a debit card, as well as cash government or payroll checks.
Some Howard students like the idea of convenience Pay By Touch offers.
"Having a whole lot of cards just leaves it out there for fraud and other things to happen," said senior history and political science major Ronnie Lewis.
Other students are skeptical of the new technology.
"I think it would be difficult for them to fingerprint everybody...There could be a lot of glitches and mix-ups," said sophomore biology major Eboni Santos. "It all depends on how the technology works."
Rayder said Pay By Touch is not only beneficial to the customers, but also valuable merchants. Rayder said processing checks and credit cards costs merchants money, but Pay By Touch allows merchants to offer a lower cost transaction called an ACH (Automated Clearing House) transaction, which is the most cost effective.
"[Pay By Touch] targets stores where people shop constantly with a high volume of concern," she said. "We have our most deployments in large-scale grocery store chains."
Currently, the Pay By Touch system is utilized in Piggly Wiggly grocery stores in South Carolina and Georgia and some Farm Fresh grocery stores in Virginia. Cub Foods grocery store recently announced it will launch the technology in all 24 of its Chicago stores.
Tom Hill, manager of a Farm Fresh store in Chesapeake, Va., has been using the Pay By Touch system for three months and is complimentary of the service.
"It is very favorable for women because they can leave their purses in the car," Hill said. "From a sales stand-point, it will increase sales because we are the only ones in the market in the state of Virginia with this system."
Other than a minor software issue when the system was first installed, Hill had no complaints about the Pay By Touch system.
Even though there are yet to be any stores in the District of Columbia area is yet to have stores with Pay By Touch, but Rayder said, "We are rolling out stores everyday. It won't be long before we are in all major metropolitan markets. We will soon be in D.C."
Pay By Touch recently acquired the assets of CardSystems Solutions Inc., a credit card processing company that suffered a major security breach. Pay By Touch gained access to about 120,000 merchants who once used CardSystems to process their payments.
