American Express Blue – Leadership through Innovation

The RFID Credit Card

Since June 2005, all American Express issued Blue credit cards have been imbedded with an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) transponder, in addition to the traditional credit card magnetic strip. RFID technology transmits information wirelessly between two or more objects in close proximity. This means that when you make purchases at any of the American Express ExpressPay participating merchants, you simply have to tap the credit card against, or hold it an inch or two away from the RFID reader, for the goods to be charged to your card.

According to American Express, the greatest benefit of making use of an RFID system is that it speeds up transactions. Statistics gathered during the Proof of Concept and Pilot phases of the project showed that payment by the RFID Blue from American Express card is 63 percent quicker than paying by cash and 53 percent faster than paying by following the traditional credit card process.

The RFID Key Fob

In conjunction with Texas Instruments RFID Systems, American Express also launched an RFID key fob that any holder of a Blue from American Express credit card is eligible for. The key fob fits onto most key chains and can be used instead of your credit card to pay for everyday purchases such as fuel and foodstuffs. This effectively means that you do not need to take your wallet with you when you go shopping.

As a Blue card holder, all purchases made via your RFID key fob, are directly charged to your credit card account. These charges will appear on your monthly credit card statement. To enable you to differentiate between purchases made by RFID key fob and by card, ExpressPay purchases are highlighted as is the name of the merchant, the date and the amount spent. A limit of $150 per day is imposed.

Should you have more than one Blue account, you can apply for an RFID key fob for every account you hold.

RFID Security

As with all wireless technologies, there may be questions about the security of payment transactions using the credit card. The company assures card holders that American Express Blue credit card is very safe. In addition to a variety of security precautions, data encryption, similar to that used for the RFID chip in the US Passport, is used to ensure that privileged information is not shared. As with all American Express credit cards, holders of the Blue card with RFID are protected against fraudulent usage and theft.

The Blue from American Express credit card’s modern design, coupled with current generation features, has seen it become one of the most popular credit cards among young adults today.