Print USB, All In One Laserjet Supplies and More …

by Tony Buser

Over recent years credit cards have become the way for millions to fund their Christmas expenditure with Consumer Intelligence suggesting that over 55% of shoppers plan to pay for their gifts with a credit card. Christmas is an expensive time of the year and understandably many consumers turn to credit cards to help them with their purchases and their budgeting.

Over 30 million people in the UK currently hold credit cards and the average time to clear Christmas debts racked up on the cards is 5 months! Despite concerns about the ease of access to debt more and more people are actually paying down their credit cards and for the first time in years the total number of cards in circulation is falling.

The explosive growth in the use of bank cards of all types; debit, credit, ATM has seen the “form factor” (the shape plastic card) become the de facto standard for a range of other products including Gift Voucher Cards, ID Cards, Photo Driving Licenses, Membership Cards and so on. We now take for granted that “plastic cards” designed to be carried around by a person in their wallet; purse, bag or pocket will be the same size the world over. In essence these cards are produced to a global standard to ensure they fit into bags, wallets, card readers, swipe machines, scanners, card carries and so on.

Any card issued that fails to comply with these size standards is unlikely to get used because consumers have grown to expect cards to comply with this design standard and they have organised their personal accessories (bags, wallets, purses etc.) around this standard.

It is perhaps no surprise then that the latest generation of USB flash drives have been produced in the shape of a standard credit card. At just 2mm thick USB credit cards are marginally thicker than a standard card but they still fit comfortably into any standard wallet or purse. When you consider these USB credit cards contain a USB connector, a flash memory controller and a flash memory chip that capable of storing hundreds of thousands of documents it’s a pretty amazing feat.

USB credit cards have also been seized upon by the promotional gift sector where sales are rocketing. Sales have been fuelled by several factors including the ability to print larger, more complex and more vibrant full colour prints on the cards and the immediate acceptance of the product by the consumers who can immediately find a “home” for the card in their wallet or purse.

For years credit card companies have fought over what they call “share of wallet” – that’s getting their card as the preferred card and their brand burned into the psyche of the user. Today USB Credit Cards have the ability to fight for space in the same wallet and if they achieve this position the brand printed on the USB credit card will get continued and positive exposure.

Expect USB Credit cards to continue to get thinner and expect to see more and more of them around. Whilst you can’t buy your Christmas presents using them you can certainly store your Christmas lists, photos, movies and music on them.