Professor Says MasterCard's PayPass May Help Consumers Forget What's Really Priceless

The new PayPass card introduced by MasterCard this week sounds like another attempt to make the traditional debit card look and act more like a credit card, according to Dr. James Roberts, professor of Marketing at Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business.

“Removing the need for a signature on some purchases helps the once innocuous debit card to act more like its bigger more profitable brother — the credit card,” he contends. “The lack of a signature makes the money involved in such a transaction more abstract and the consumer more likely to spend.

“Do we really spend that much time waiting in lines?” asks Roberts. “Maybe we should, and maybe, just maybe, we would take that time to reflect on what’s really important in life — and what really is ‘Priceless.’”

Roberts is a well-known expert in the field of credit card use and compulsive buying. His research shows that credit card misuse is rampant among compulsive buyers and contributes to accelerating the epidemic of compulsive buying in America.