GREENSBORO, N.C. — Cash used to be king, and then swiping a credit or debit card became a more popular option.
But now, some are choosing to skip the card. Instead, they're using the digital wallet on their phone.
The apps are faster than using your credit card, but are they safer?
To verify we spoke to Evan Francen cybersecurity expert and CEO of FR Secure.
He says mobile apps like Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Google Pay are the way to go.
"They are more secure because your credit card information is never really transferred to the merchant," Francen said.
When you use mobile payment apps you have two things working for you- biometrics and tokenization.
To use the apps, you'll either have to scan your eye, face, or fingerprint to verify your identity with every transaction.
That beats traditional means of a signature, pin, or for some transactions nothing at all with your credit card.
Then there's tokenization.
Francen says every time you use your phone to pay, the apps take your credit card information and create a random string of numbers or a "token." The token is then given to the merchant for payment for processing but doesn't expose any of your account information.
It's hidden in a virtual vault as an extra level of security.
This way you don't have to worry about your credit card number being written down, scanned, or skimmed.
So we can verify yes, mobile payment apps are safer than using your credit card.