Debit and credit card products and their derivatives (e.g. PayPass, Pre-Authorized Debit, Visa Wave, VLP, ... ) address the transaction speed requirement by not requiring a PIN or signature, and by offline authorization (or online authorization using high speed terminals). The no charge-backs requirement is met by issuers waving charge-back rights for micropayment transactions.

However, none of these products addresses adequately the transaction economics and aggregation requirements which are critical. They are all transaction based products just like debit and credit cards. This means that for each card there is always an account on the issuer's backend system, and that each transaction authorized at a POS (online or offline) has to clear and settle through this account. For small purchases, this fixed cost per transaction represents a zero sum game, which results either in fees that are unacceptable to the merchants, or profit/loss unacceptable to the issuers and acquirers. Because of high transaction fees the majority of low-ticket merchants do not accept cards. This creates a major problem for consumer acceptance. Wide acceptance at retail outlets (ubiquity) is critical for consumer acceptance of a product that targets everyday cash purchases. A product that does not provide for transaction economics with fees acceptable to the merchants will not be successful.

Transaction based products result in all transactions being posted on the monthly statement. Aggregation of low value payments is possible only at the issuer’s backend system by adding up all low value payments and posting one aggregated amount on the monthly statement (or doing it per category like parking, etc.). This amount would be different from month to month, and since it was not approved by the consumer (using signature or PIN) and cannot be reconciled by the consumer, it would be subject to costly customer service calls and inevitable charge-backs at the issuer’s expense.