There’s an app for that:

Mastercard has gamified bill paying. By combining a wee bit of fun with a keen eye on security and fraud prevention, Mastercard hopes you will soon be using your plastic to pay bills with a snap and a blink.

Smartphone owning cardholders download the app and take a selfie. Then facial recognition software allows the user to pay a bill by simply looking at the selfie and blinking.

The blink and data transfer process are keys to the security of the method. The blink is the safeguard which prevents someone simply holding up a picture of you.

For those wanting just to press and pay, the app offers fingerprint recognition instead of the selfie blink method.

A further layer of security is provided through conversion code within the app. As reported by CNet, neither fingerprints nor photographs are sent to Mastercard. Rather the photograph and the fingerprint stay on your phone. To minimize the risk of such unique and valuable personal data being hacked and stolen, the app converts them into code which is transferred to Mastercard.

But does anyone really want their payments that easy and fun? According to MacWorld, the grocery chain Whole Foods reports a 400% increase in alternative mobile payments since Apple introduced their system.

Apple has a game-changer in the contactless pay arena. The ApplePay feature on their new watches and iPhone 6 smartphones takes advantage of their built-in Near Field antennae and proprietary fingerprint recognition software: TouchID . A customer puts their finger on the phone’s  TouchID while holding the device in proximity to an NF reader and then clicking. ApplePay doesn’t need to convert biometric data to code for transmission.

Payment systems are all chasing the grail of customer payment ease coupled with security measures. Paypal, among others, offers a second layer of security by texting an expiring unique code to their customer.

The good news for consumers is that the movement in payments is to systems offering more secure methods which don’t require memorizing (and forgetting) passwords. Minimizing fraud from card readers and hacking methods gives consumers a little more security. You may one day just be able to imagine your bill being paid!

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