Visa, Mastercard Users Prepare for One ‘Credential’ to Rule Them All
Credit card numbers, and cards themselves, may quickly start to feel as outdated as checkbooks.
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The Visa and Mastercard payment networks are propelling consumers into a future where purses are lighter, pockets are emptier and payments are easier.
Most notably, both companies have rolled out programs that can combine multiple payment methods — from credit and debit cards to reward points and installment plans — onto one unifying "credential." At checkout, you can simply present that credential and choose your payment option, rather than having to actually cart around all of those various cards or passwords.
“No one wants a thick wallet. It’s the George Constanza problem,” says Matthew Goldman, founder of the financial technology consulting firm Totavi, referencing an episode of “Seinfeld” where one character’s overstuffed wallet causes him back pain.
If you’re one of the 48% of Americans who used a digital wallet in the past 90 days, per March 2024 data from J.D. Power, you’re already experiencing technology’s wallet-slimming potential. Helping fuel consumer adoption is growing merchant acceptance. The J.D. Power 2025 Merchant Services Satisfaction Study found that 90% of small businesses accept digital wallets.
Just a week after Visa announced its new suite of services in May 2024, Google Pay announced the launch of new features on its app. Users would see their cards’ benefits at checkout so they could pick the one that will earn the most rewards for the purchase. They were also shown buy now, pay later options for more merchants than before. Plus, the app auto-filled details like shipping and billing information with a fingerprint, face scan or screen lock PIN.
The changes are part of a larger trend of making it effortless to make purchases. “These innovations are all designed to streamline payment actions and make it easier and safer for consumers to transact across different environments in a more consistent manner,” said Beth Robertson, managing director at Keynova, a financial services intelligence firm, in an email.
More about the Visa and Mastercard changes
In addition to making payments easier, new innovations also aim to improve security. Here are the ones with the most potential to change your shopping experience:
Pick your payment option
Visa Flexible Credential allows you to access multiple payment options — including debit and credit cards, loyalty points, and buy now, pay later plans — from one payment source. You can also set some parameters, like paying with debit if a purchase is below a certain amount and paying with credit if it exceeds that amount. Visa Flexible Credential expanded into the U.S. in November 2024 by partnering with buy now, pay later provider Affirm. The Affirm Card, a debit card that allows users to pay for a purchase in full or over time, uses Visa Flexible Credential.
Mastercard One Credential, which launched in February 2025, is similar. It also gives you the choice of multiple payment options, such as debit and credit cards, installment plans and prepaid cards. You can also set parameters on when to use which form of payment.
Increased ways for merchants to accept payments
You’re likely already growing more accustomed to tapping your card, as opposed to dipping it into a chip reader, as merchants update their point-of-sale (POS) terminals to access contactless payments. Tap to Everything expands upon this idea, with the promise that "any device can now be a POS device," per Visa's news release. For instance, merchants will be able to take payments by letting consumers tap their cards to the merchant’s mobile device.
That tapping process may even translate to peer-to-peer payments, allowing "money to be sent between family and friends" in a similar way, Visa's release notes.
You'll also be able to tap your card to your own phone to securely add it to a digital wallet, or to add it as a payment method on a merchant’s website.
No more passwords and card numbers
Instead of entering passwords or one-time security codes when shopping online, Visa Payment Passkey Service allows you to use your face or fingerprint to authorize the transaction. Meanwhile, Mastercard announced plans in November 2024 to phase out the need for physical card numbers, passwords and one-time codes by 2030, also by incorporating biometric information.
What will change for consumers?
Some of these products have come to the market in the U.S., while others aren’t available here yet. They may be available only on certain credit and debit cards for now, but that can change within just a few years.
“I think it’s important for leading issuers to promote options like these and to educate their customers about their value,” Robertson said. She added that merchants prominently mentioning these payment options on their own websites will make them more visible to consumers.
Ultimately, these are steps toward a future where picking the right payment method for each purchase — and authenticating those purchases so your bank knows they aren’t fraudulent — will be faster and easier than ever before. According to Robertson, we’ve already seen some of these innovations elsewhere, like credit cards that offer buy now, pay later plans for eligible purchases, and your face or fingerprint being used to initiate a payment.
As consumers and merchants more fully embrace digital wallets, innovations that reduce friction during the checkout process will continue to come to the market.
“I think the physical form factor of the card is going to go away,” Goldman says. “We’ll still call them cards, I suppose.”
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