Why Pay From A Phone When You Can Pay With A Ring?

While the mobile payment arena has certainly taken off of late, for many it still seems to be a bit more of a novelty than anything. So why not take that novelty to a whole new level? Starting today you can pre-order you up a nifty NFC payment ring, that just like your iPhone or Samsung Galaxy S7, will allow you to leave the credit cards behind and make mobile payments at any NFC terminal.

The NFC Ring, as it is so aptly named, started off as a Kickstarter project a few years back. Originally it was billed as a great way "to unlock doors, mobile phones and to transfer information and link people", and while the finished product does all that it also offers a bit more via a second NFC connection that is more secure for utilizing payment options.

The concept is really unique, in that the ring has one side that is “public” and the other “private”. On the "public" side the ring can be programmed to accomplish a wide variety of tasks such as transferring contact information, links to websites, links to pictures, setting your phone to do specific things ect. While the private is used to unlock your phone, your NFC locks or other tasks you don’t want to do accidentally. With the latest version of the NFC Ring you also get the option to setup mobile payments.

The new NFC payment ring is primarily designed to work with wireless payment systems, without the need to whip out our credit card or smartphone. Once it’s all set-up, you wont even need your phone close by to use the ring, as it uses the same anonymous tokens to make payments that your iPhone or Android would. The ring meets EMVCo’s contactless performance requirements, ensuring support for a range of VISA cards from a selection of banks.

The NFC Ring made its official debut at the RIO Olympics and the team has been hard at work since then finalizing the details of the launch. So unfortunately we don't yet know which credit card companies or banks the the NFC Ring will support but keep in mind that Samsung Pay just surpassed 100 million transaction and Apple Pay is growing enormously daily. So considering they all utilize the same NFC and EMVCo style systems, support should be good!

If you’re interested, two NFC Ring models are available for pre-order in three different colors and a huge selections of ring sizes. Prices are set at $53 (£40) for the latest model, and the company is offering 50 percent of all titanium rings this summer. You can checkout their full website here NFCRing.com.

More information: Visa Introduces NFC-Enabled Payment Ring for Team Visa Sponsored Athletes to Use at Rio 2016 Olympic Games