McDonald's is going to be piloting a new MasterCard wireless credit card system using RFID. McDonald's customers can use the special MasterCard PayPass card to charge purchases to their MasterCard account. They simply will wave the MasterCard in front of a special credit card reader by VeriFone Inc.

This news tidbit is getting headline attention, but it is not a very new idea.

Mobil gas stations and other retail outlets in the United States have been using the SpeedPass system for several years now. SpeedPass is a small gadget that contains an RFID chip and allows the user to pay for purchases by simply waving the SpeedPass wand in front of the RFID reader at the point of sale. SpeedPass was even trialed at over 400 McDonald's restaurants in the Chicago Illinois area. See my earlier article on the SpeedPass.

Perhaps the new part is putting the RFID chip directly on a MasterCard credit card -- which suggests that RFID on credit cards may be going mainstream.