- The credit cards that dominate the consumption habits of so many consumers, from companies ranging from Mastercard to Visa and even Apple with their Apple Card, are slowly changing the appearance that consumers expect from these card products.
- Credit cards are increasingly taking on a vertical orientation.
- This happens as apps like TikTok and Instagram adapt the world to a vertical scroll feed and it also reflects how most consumers use their credit cards anyway – by inserting them into chip readers vertically, for example.
Here’s something I bet you didn’t expect: TikTok and Instagram are cultural forces so widespread in the world today that they’re beginning to discreetly influence credit card design, among other things.
In the past few days, PayPal has launched new vertical debit and credit card designs for its Venmo app, which a company executive said was partially inspired by the vertical orientation of these popular social media apps. Daniela Jorge, vice president of design at PayPal, said Bloomberg in a recent interview that this is just the way the whole world is thinking now. And what are people’s expectations for apps and consumer products like credit cards. “The world around us is becoming more in portrait mode and vertical orientation,” said Jorge.
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In addition to PayPal, large banks are already moving in that direction. Bank of America, the second largest debit card product provider in the United States, was one of the first to adopt a portrait-oriented debit card. Likewise, Discovery Bank started offering vertical credit cards in 2018. And the reasons why we should expect this trend to continue, with more banks adopting a vertical style for their card products, include the fact that, with the advent of chip readers and tap-to-pay functionality, this is how most people already handle their cards.
With a chip reader, for example, the credit card is inserted vertically into the reader. Likewise, as digital wallets increase in popularity – with cardholders increasingly using a digital version of their credit card stored on their smartphone – the phone becomes the device with which the consumer pays, in instead of a physical card. And phones, of course, are used vertically. When Apple launched its new Apple Card credit card product, I didn’t even bother to get a physical version of the card. I signed up and was approved for the credit card, which I keep in my iPhone’s wallet application and use vertically, since I’m simply swinging the phone in front of a card reader.
Think about the last time you gave your card to someone to pass it horizontally to a reader. It’s probably been a while, right? Now, consider that two years after these smart payment chip cards were introduced, Experian says that American banks have issued more than 855 million of them. They are called EMV cards, by the way, which originally meant Europay, Mastercard and Visa – the credit card companies that created this new payment standard.
“Changing our debit cards to a vertical layout involves more than the look of the cards,” said Bank of America head of consumer products and small businesses, April Schneider. Bloomberg. “The vertical layout differentiates the debit card from other cards used by customers, and the addition of the touch to pay makes the card faster and safer to use at checkout in the store.”
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Andy is a reporter in Memphis who also contributes to vehicles like Fast Company and The Guardian. When he’s not writing about technology, he can be found perched on his growing collection of vinyls, as well as nurturing his Whovianism and stuffing himself with a variety of TV shows that you probably don’t like.