Use Handheld to Take Credit Cards with PDA Swipe

>My State, Connecticut, uses barcodes on its drivers
>licenses, so this would be useless to our law
>enforcement.

Well bully for you. Maybe you've noticed that not only are there a whole bunch of other states in your country, but that there are other countries out there too.

>We have to wait in line at retail stores anyway
>to have our purchases rung up, and stores like
>Wal-mart verify credit cards almost instantly,
>so having a Palm do it, assuming it can pick up
>a radio signal inside of a store, is senseless.

Of course you can pick up a phone signal inside a store... Not that Wall-mart would use this solution... they'd use a Wireless local area network of some sort (eg 802.11b).

Then again, as you point out - it's probably a pretty bad idea to use a Wireless Palm in Wal-mart.

However, certain POS applications would really benefit from this sort of system. Train tickets bought in-transit already use wireless credit card authentication.

What about outdoor applications? How about being able to use your credit card at a ball game to pay for snacks / drinks that are delivered. The vendor could take your order, wirelessly send it back to base to be prepared, then you can pay on your credit card for what you've ordered.

What about for ambulance drivers? Swipe your driver's license and get back info about any alergies, or known problems like diabeties?

Or maybe a deliery service of some sort? Not only could you do cash on delivery, you could do credit card on delivery.

I see quite a few problems where this solution would be suited.

(end rant)

Cheers
Russell

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russ@russb.fsnet.co.uk
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When I worked at a 7-11 a few years ago, we had a card reader to take the guess work out of whether or not someone was old enough to buy alcohol (Everyone makes mistakes, but making a mistake like that can cost the clerk their drivers licence for a year!). So all it did was check the date and give a yes or no to whether or not they were old enough to buy alcohol. It would also let you know if the card was a fake. How, I don't know, but it would let you know.

Just because you see no immediate need in your small frame of reference does not auto matically mean the device is of no use. You have been given several good examples of the potential this device has, and there are a million more. Open up your mind!!

This sounds like a good idea.......for the crime mind.....could you image, having your credit card number swiped by a dishonest person an using that information for no good......sure it will make shopping and conducting business easier but one has to think....there is always a "smarter crook" out there. Also consider sending that information via a "wireless" device. Just today on USATODAY there is an article about wireless device NOT BEING SAFE. A 15 year old with a laptop and the right hardware could intercept the "wireless" signal, so there is my point.....ARE WE READY FOR BIG BROTHER..........

Yeah, I just saw a TV show about how some nare-do-wells have come up with a similar device that doesn't use Palm. It's very small, and has enough memory to record the vitals from a couple hundred cards. Thieves pay people like waiters at restaurants to scan the cards into the device at the same time they have taken the card to pay for the meal. The waiter gets a couple of bucks for each number swiped, and the thieves use the numbers to go out and make some new cards or just use the number over the net. No Palm is needed. So watch your cards, kiddies.

Actually I can see some of the original poster's points. All it amounts to, though, is that the PDA Swipe may or may not be useful in different circumstances.

I have no objection to law enforcement using the PDA Swipe to check my license in any state where that would work...the only illegal thing I'm likely to be doing is speeding. I'm not worried about the government...I'm not interesting enough. :)

I wouldn't want a bar/nightclub/liquor sales person collecting any of my personal data from my license, though....it's not so much the bouncer or clerk or whoever having access to my info but the people they might sell it to if they were unscrupulous. For a criminal, you're always interesting if you provide an opportunity. But I wouldn't care if they just used it to check my age; of course, the problem there is how you'd know whether they were collecting other data.

For the grocery store and Wal-Mart examples, I actually would say that the Swipe is not an asset. If you're going to spare essential personnel in a crunch to go up to each person in line with a portable credit terminal, you might as well have opened another register. Same with the grocery store thing...why wander the aisles looking for the portable scanning person when you know you can always find someone at the customer service desk? A central location is more efficient in that case, or heck, wire up card scanners at the ends of each aisle and use the staff for something else.

For sales people on the go, like waiters or hookers or pizza delivery boys or what have you, it may or may not make real sense. To make a portable credit terminal useful it should have a receipt printer, and by the time you add that to the PDA, whatever it's using for wireless access, and the Swipe, it's not so portable a package. You'd have to think about whether the convenience of the mobile access was worth the inconvenience of hauling all this stuff. For restaurants in particular, it'd make more sense to wire up each table with a terminal like they've got at gas station pumps so you can pay without waiting for the waiter to *finally* take and *finally* bring back your card.

The only place I can see this thing making sense is where you have a relatively stable temporary location, like a table at a tech expo or county fair or liquidation sale or whatever type of event. And that's only if the event doesn't already offer credit hookups, which most do.

The upshot is basically that in many of the situations where this would be useful, it's still not small enough, and in the others, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. It's a neat gadget, but not truly convenient enough yet to really replace the way things are currently done.

I'm going to be the guy at the club scanning your ID. HA HA HA!

Well, it's not like there aren't already small, fairly portable, electronic credit card machines available. So, I'm sure if you look around, you could probably find a prostitute or escort service that already can take credit cards. Of course if someone is not so reputable, you may not want to give them your credit card in the first place.

The advantage of this device over most current options is that you can write custom software on the Palm to support your application. The Palm can then provide you a nice GUI for it. Add in a HandEra 330 or TRGpro and you can network it as well.

This is all to common. The waiter at the resturant your at could be doing the same thing. The only defense it to carfully watch the transactions on your card or not use one at all.

You can buy the Palm VIIx along with the Swipe Reader and Integrated with a Merchant account at:
http://www.takepayment.com