News

See Headlines »

Editorial | what does this mean?

This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community.

Man dissolves credit card to make contactless ring

There may be no shortage of wearable payment options on the market, but one handy man has decided to opt for something a little more personal, and time consuming: dissolving his credit card and putting the RFID chip in a home-made resin ring.

Although still largely seen as a novelty, wearables have begun to gain traction in recent years, with people making contactless payments using everything from Apple Phones to keychains to jackets.

Now, a member of the instructables website has posted a guide to making your own contactless bling. All you need is a second card, a soldering iron, resin, 3D printer, and some patience.

To make your ring, first up ask your bank for a replacement card, dissolve it in acetone, take out the RFID chip and solder a new antenna to it. Then, print a ring inner frame, glue the chip to it and put it in a ring mold before filling it with resin.

You can now make contactless payments without having to get your wallet or phone out of your pocket.

Lead Channel

Payments

Channels

Retail banking

Keywords

Cards Eftpos

Editorial | what does this mean?

This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community.

Comments: (4)

Daniel Blondell - McLEAR - London 01 May, 2019, 09:10

3 likes Maybe you should spend more time writing articles about companies which have taken the time, effort, investment and the pain of payment certification process to make a real Smart Ring product!

Report abuse

Bill Trueman - Riskskill.com - London 02 May, 2019, 12:06

Be the first to give this comment the thumbs up

0 likes

Or just make the payments from ANY card that you have regstered on any modern smartphone or watch or health-tracker with the funtionality - or even people who doing this with wearables.

In the picture, it looks like he is holding some element of hardware too: which looks a little cumbersome - as this maybe an external induction-coil or battery.

Also note that the process of doing what is described above will likely (depending upon the bank) be in direct breach of card terms and conditions and open you up to some significant liabilities in the even to all sorts of breaches in security and fraud. So do this at your peril.

Accordingly, I am going to ignore this article as pure 'guff' and potentially dangerous with costly consequences; and propose that others should do so too. A responsible publication shoudl also want to lead on these risk-based aspects of this rather than writing this like an accolade.

Report abuse

A Finextra member 15 October, 2020, 16:20

0 likes

Not sure this will take off! :-) but it get everyone talking about it which is good - after just reading another post about a €249 payment ring I think the right price is somewhat lower than that - McLEAR where are you :-)

Report abuse

Daniel Blondell - McLEAR - London 15 October, 2020, 18:59

0 likes Couldn't agree more with you Bill and Andrew! So, everyone should order a second bank card, lose time and money to go to the hardware store to buy all elements required: soldering iron, resin, 3D printer, acetone, ring mould and put their money at risk and be in breach of card T&Cs - or they can just head on to the McLEAR.com website and order their Ring, which will be less expensive, take less time to receive, know their funds will be secure, and won't be breaching any card requirements! Hard choice to make....