An article in the UK's Banking Times cites Apacs (UK Payments Association) who predicts that consumers are getting closer to being able to use their cell phones as a displacement to credit cards.  The hold up has been securing the transactions, but technology like Near Field Communication (NFC) holds the promise of delivering fast, reliable, and safe mobile purchase transactions.

Once this hurdle is overcome, it may provide the final push to removing multiple plastic cards from consumers wallet and realizing payments in the virtual world.  For example, both Visa and MasterCard are supporting delinked accounts which are identified at the cardholder, not the product level.  In addition, the major U.S. issuers are consolidating their bases and there may be further consolidation looming, as consumer credit continues to soften.  In addition, two of the major issuers in the U.S., Bank of America and Chase, both own significant merchant acquiring businesses; giving them control over both ends of a transaction.

All this adds up to the possibility of consumers having one "payment identification" account which is then linked to a number of different types of payment methods.  One could select credit, debit, or prepaid for example at the POS by using the same primary account.  The card becomes superfluous to the payment transaction, which can take place in the real or virtual world including using a mobile phone. 

One can argue that this is quite a leap, from mobile phone payments to multi-tender accounts, but the promise of a true virtual wallet has been on the horizon for quite some time.  It could be that consumer acceptance and technology are maturing to the point of making this a reality.