In the interest of thwarting credit card theft, Visa is testing some pretty interesting card technology with a handful of European banks. Using what appears to be Visa's mutant hybrid of a credit card and a pocket calculator, users can enter their PIN into the card itself and have a security code generated on the fly.

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3M's new Mobile ID Reader scans MRZ and RF chip data from passports and visas and immediately checks them against local or international watch lists by using wifi or GSM/GPRS EDGE networks. It seems like a great tool to further make you feel like you're living in some scary dystopian sci-fi novel, especially when you hear that dastardly monopolist Bill Gates got his little-loved Windows Mobile 6 OS onto the device.

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Visas and eight banks ("PNC Bank, SunTrust Bank, U.S. Bank, Wachovia, and Wells Fargo in the United States, and Royal Bank of Canada, TD Bank Financial Group, and Vancity in Canada") are testing real-time SMS notifications whenever your card makes one of a few types of transactions. The 2000 pilot beta customers can pick alerts for ATM cash withdrawals, internet or telephone charge, an out-of-country charge or a charge that's over a pre-defined amount. You can choose to have these alerts go to your phone or your email (if you're cheap like us and don't want to burn up all your messages), which you can then immediately use to alert Visa to any fraudulent activity. Great idea or greatest idea? You be the judge. [Slashphone]

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Visa and SCX Global have just launched an awesome new virtual card for those who still don't like the idea of dropping their credit card details online. More of a virtual debit card, the Visa Virtual Prepaid (or VCARD) works by letting you buy a card with whatever value you want on board (plus a $5.50 setup fee). Pay now, buy later.

You can buy these online, but of course that defeats the point for many this is targeted toward. So you can buy at your nearest Mobil/Quix and then activate the details online. You get a card number, expiry date, and three-digit security code. All smartly delivered part online, part via SMS or email, for extra security.

These are proving popular overseas, with Visa claiming over 100,000 active customers in Ireland where the concept has been live for about two years (and that's around 15% of the Irish online buying population).

I'm fine with using my card online, but I know this will be a big winner with many older folks - and with no credit checks, bank accounts, etc involved, I can imagine plenty of anti-credit or bad-credit people will be keen on it too. Safe bet for buying from the seedier corners of the net, too. Use once, then dump and never use again? Could these be a tool in the grey markets and black markets of the future? [Virtual VCARD]

Credit card companies are dragging their old hairy asses into an uncertain future, finally and begrudgingly offering the convenience of payments without signature to locations everywhere. Here's the latest evidence of that from bloodsucking Visa, with its Visa Micro Tag that lets you make micropayments without touching anything, where you nonchalantly wave this sky-blue keyfob and stave off payment for those burgers and fries until the gombeen man comes a-knocking once again.

Oh, you'll pay for this indirectly; merchants will have to pay for these little trinkets, too—but at least the mini-RFID transmitters will further speed up purchases under $25 that used to require the exchange of filthy, dangerous cash. Never mind that we had a device similar to this stuck to our car's rear window to pay for gas ... eleven years ago. [Geek Zone]