If the world of mobile and contactless payments moves so fast it seems like a wild ride, MasterCard Worldwide and Lo-Q PLC have targeted the perfect setting.
Lo-Q, a provider of virtual queuing system devices designed to help reduce the need to stand in lines by alerting park visitors when it is their turn for a ride or attraction, plans to develop a contactless-payment wristband that incorporates queuing with MasterCard’s PayPass technology.
The concept could work especially well at a water park, where visitors rarely want cash in their pockets or a cell phone with them, Gil Luria, analyst with Los Angeles-based Wedbush Securities, tells PaymentsSource.
The smartphone remains the primary vehicle in the future of mobile or contactless payments because it has so many capabilities, but visitors at water parks likely would not want an expensive phone exposed to water-related rides, thus the wristband is a perfect fit, Luria suggests.
“It’s a virtual cycle for these mobile payment or tap-and-go devices because the more consumer acceptance of them, the more possibilities open for the banks to give them to customers as part of a payment program,” Luria says.
United Kingdom-based Lo-Q and MasterCard announced Dec. 5 a three-year agreement to develop and promote the technology to operators of theme and water parks and other entertainment venues.
The wristband would include an embedded contactless chip that would communicate with MasterCard PayPass readers throughout the park, Tara Casey, vice president of water parks for Lo-Q Inc., the Lo-Q affiliate in Atlanta, tells PaymentsSource.
In addition, park visitors could load funds into the wristband, which would access a prepaid card account, Casey notes.
“This concept is only in the development stage, but the vision is for park visitors to be able to use the wristband to pay for other things, like gas for their cars on the way home, or for items at stores that accept PayPass,” Casey says.
Lo-Q provides virtual queuing systems for Six Flags Great America in the United States and Six Flags England, as well as various other theme and water parks throughout the United Kingdom, according to the company’s website.
MasterCard officials were not available for comment to PaymentsSource, but Richard Burdett, vice president of the card brand’s Mobile/Wireless Center of Excellence, stated in a press release the agreement provides potential for another new innovation for cardholders.
“In working with Lo-Q, we all saw the synergies in our respective products and some great opportunities to provide cardholders combined contactless payment and virtual queue technologies in one product,” Burdett said.
Tom Burnet, Lo-Q CEO, said the partnership and ensuing technology development will enable park visitors to more fully enjoy their days by avoiding long lines to pay or get on rides.
Because the concept is in early development, information about whether the park visitor or the theme park would pay for the wristband, or if a bank would issue it as part of a MasterCard prepaid card program, was not available.
MasterCard also is making headway in the use of its PayPass service by embedding the contactless chips in wristbands distributed at festivals and other events (
And in the U.S., U.S. Bancorp is testing wristbands for emergency medical and payment use (
Vita Products Inc. also is offering the Vitaband identification and payment wristband that features Visa Inc.’s payWave-enabled contactless chip. The Bancorp Bank of Wilmington, Del., is issuing the product, which accesses a prepaid account established when consumers buy the bands (
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