At the time of payment, who has never seen stress increase… For multiple reasons: blank card, refused payment, incorrect code… It sometimes even happens that we don’t know the reason. Or in the worst case, a hack.
This small piece of plastic, seemingly nothing, is a source of enormous anxiety. Stored in our wallets, it has accompanied us in our daily lives for more than fifty years.
The card indeed provides us with many services. And despite the explosion of digital technology, and particularly mobile payment, it has held up quite well to the passage of time.
The number of transactions (15 billion in 2022) and the total amount thereof (685 billion euros) continues to grow in France, assures the economic interest group (GIE) Cartes Bancaires (CB), reports the newspaper The union.
However, the number of these CB bank cards in circulation in the country is falling significantly: it reached 76 million at the end of 2022 (-1.4%), a figure to which must be added the millions of non-CB Visa or Mastercard cards, often distributed by online banks, but also by the BPCE banking group.
Contactless payment took a decisive turn during the Covid pandemic in 2020, but the card held up. However, it is not for lack of obstacles. She has, in fact, seen the use of mobile phones rising before her instead of physical cards, which more than doubled between 2021 and 2022, according to the Banque de France, reports the media.
And it’s not over. Two other projects could also overshadow it in the years to come: Wero, a dematerialized wallet accessible on mobile supported by large European banks, and the digital euro, a dematerialized version of cash also accessible on mobile and defended by the Bank European Central (ECB).
But, for the moment, the card is holding up, despite the daily technical problems associated with it: