VISA¡¯s Upcoming Sunglasses Replace Credit Cards, Can Pay Your Bills Wirelessly

Snapchat¡¯s shades let you take pics. VISA¡¯s sunglasses will soon let you pay for stuff. And we¡¯ll soon have one less reason to carry our credit card or wallet.

IMAGE CREDIT: VISA / GETTY

We¡¯re all aware of VISA cards issued by various banks here in India, but very soon they may be sending you a pair of sunglasses, when you sign up for a credit card. That¡¯s exactly what VISA¡¯s figuring out through a pilot program, set to take place at the Quiksilver and Roxy Pro Gold Coast surfing competitions currently underway in Australia.

The VISA sunglasses don¡¯t suffer from the outlandish designs of most wearable devices -- they appear to be fairly ordinary pairs of sunglasses, albeit with one huge difference, obviously. The VISA sunglasses have a small contactless card or chip inside them that allows them to work as contactless payment alternatives -- much like NFC-enabled e-wallets we¡¯ve seen before.

IMAGE CREDIT: CNBC / VISA

Instead of inserting your credit card in the reader, you¡¯ll just have to wave your VISA sunglasses over an NFC-enabled smart card reader to carry out a transaction -- like paying for a cool drink on the beach or a hot beverage at the airport. Hopefully the process should be faster and more convenient.

We still don¡¯t know a lot about VISA¡¯s upcoming sunglasses: How secure are they? What happens when you lose them? What are the customization options? How much do they cost and when will they be available?

Wouldn't it be cool to get these VISA sunglasses featured in the next James Bond movie?

Guess we¡¯ll just have to wait for the next James Bond movie to find out more. Maybe not.