I'll Pay by RFID Wand, Please

Filed in archive Retail on February 13, 2004

Think RFID is being used only by large corporations? Not so. Millions of individuals in the United States and Canada are using RFID daily. One way is with the Speedpass payment system.

Speedpass, which uses RFID technology, allows you to pay for purchases simply by waving your Speedpass wand at the point of sale or checkout.

Right now you can use Speedpass to pay for gasoline at the pump at over 8,000 Exxon-Mobil stations. (Speedpass is owned by Exxon Mobil Corporation.)

But its use is not limited just to buying gas. You can also use it to buy fast food at over 400 Chicago, Illinois-area McDonald's Restaurants. You can use Speedpass to pay for purchases at Stop and Shop grocery stores in the Boston, Massachusetts area.

The Speedpass wand is very small -- 1.5 inches long -- and can easily hang on your key chain.

The way it works is that Speedpass operates on radio frequency which transmits your identity code. You just wave or point your Speedpass wand at the designated place on the gas pump or checkout area. That tells the point of sale system to charge whatever credit card you've previously specified. You do not have to insert your card, punch in a PIN number or do anything else.

You can even get Speedpass in a car tag format (attaches to your rear windshield in the car) or as a Timex watch.

Sounds futuristic, but it's not. It's real and it's now. Over five million people are already using this RFID technology