Card Solutions Credit cards are possibly one of the first mobile payments systems Theyve been around for years and many mobile payments systems require them to work in the first place However they havent always been available to everyone and thats a point that Elevate and Mastercard are working to change based on a report sent our way from Elevate There are around 160 million Americans the report notes that have either low credit scores or none at all and Elevate and Mastercard saw that as an opportunity to make some real progress in the market Elevate refers to this massive bloc of Americans as the New Middle Class and so has brought out this new credit release The product in question is a credit card with some impressive features it not only boasts on off functionality which is great for those users concerned about identity theft just shut off the card when its not in use as well as credit score monitoring and a complete mobile app that offers fraud alerts and custom purchase alerts too The card itself is set for a rollout later this year So how can a credit card be given to people with no credit history or a poor credit history Are Elevate and Mastercard prepared to risk massive losses As it turns out the card will refer to a series of advanced analytics that go beyond the traditional credit score With the labor market fundamentally changing thanks to increased automation telecommuting and the gig economy the old measures of credit scores which actually depend on a demonstrated use of credit previously and actually fall the less you use it are arguably completely wrong-headed Using new measures could certainly help here but its enough to make me wonder who will bite After all a debit card serves much the same purpose as a credit card you can still reserve a hotel room or rent a car with one but without the potential disaster Given how many people with no credit have no credit by choice its hard to see this team effort going far Still this might get some interest and with 160 million Americans potentially reachable getting even one in 10 would make for a nice slice of market share