Mastercard goes 'numberless' in bold change to credit, debit cards

Australian Community Media

Mastercard plans to ditch credit card numbers by 2030, replacing them with biometric authentication and tokenisation to fight fraud. But will Aussies accept a cashless future? This video includes ACM-produced voiceover powered by AI.

Transcript

00:00This has become a billion dollar problem that we have to fix.

00:04Are bank cards as we know them about to disappear?

00:07Mastercard has announced plans to remove the 16-digit number

00:10from credit and debit cards by 2030.

00:14Instead of numbers, cards will use tokenisation and biometric authentication,

00:19meaning payments could be made with a fingerprint, face scan or a unique digital code.

00:24Rather than getting out your card and putting in the same fixed number in all these websites,

00:30you go to your banking app, you can then spin up a single use card

00:34that you as a consumer can then control and you might decide

00:38that you only want it to be used at that one retailer or only for the next month.

00:42But it also means if the number gets stolen, it's much less valuable for the hackers.

00:48It's the latest in a bid from banks to stamp out fraud and scams for customers.

00:53In 2023 to 2024, card fraud cost Australians $868 million,

01:00up from $677 million the previous financial year.

01:04The first numberless cards will roll out through AMP this month,

01:08February 2025, with other banks expected to follow.

01:12While the move is designed to curb fraud,

01:14some Aussies worry it's another step towards a fully cashless society,

01:18raising concerns about digital banking access, security risks and biometric data privacy.

01:24Keep an eye on your bank statements just to make sure there's nothing unusual.

01:27And again, a little bit difficult because a lot of merchants have weird

01:31names that they actually trade by, so it doesn't look like there's a correlation.

01:36And of course, be wary with your passwords and always use multi-factor authentication.

Category

Transcript

Recommended