Stratos Smart Card Aims to Combine All in One
Stratos are looking forward to make your credit cards, debit cards, loyalty cards, and gift cards a thing of past. It will combine all of the cards in one.
Stratos is a kind of electronic 'smart' card that has assured the simplification of lives by slimming down our wallets and securing our personal information.
The working of this card is very simple. A corresponding mobile app will store all your current credit card information and will transmit to your Stratos Card whenever you want to pay. When you receive this card in the mail, it comes with a card reader that can be plugged into a phone's headphone jack.
You can load the card's information in the app by swiping a traditional credit card, debit card or gift card through the reader.
The app can save any number of cards but the Stratos Card holds only three cards for quick access. Thiago Olson, CEO and co-founder of Stratos, told CNNMoney that most people only use three cards 95% of the time.
There are three touch-sensors on the front of the card that correspond to each quick access card, and thus allow you to choose which one you want to use with a few taps. Stratos will require a Bluetooth connection to your smartphone, if you're not using one of those three cards.
Stratos Card is very similar to a traditional credit card, but it is as thin and light as a business card and has a slick and clean design.
The Stratos Card is safe as it uses bank-level encryption, and for added security it generates a new, unique credit card "token" number every time it's used. After the bank receives and decrypts that "token," it charges your card. The best thing is that the retailer can never see your actual credit card number.
The Stratos Card will cost $95 a year, or $145 for a two-year upfront membership. According to Stratos, this fee includes the cost of manufacturing, plus the cloud storage and security of the card, which is checked by the company. It is available for pre-order now, and the shipping will begin in April.