Mastercard Launches Augmented Reality App to Help Cardholders Understand Their Benefits

Mastercard has created a new augmented reality app to help customers better understand their card benefits. The app will be available on iPhone for cardholders in the United States in the spring, and will expand to other devices later this year.

Augmented reality (AR) offers virtual enhancement for real-world settings. The game Pokemon Go is a good example of how AR works. The characters in the app are virtual, but they are set in the environment the player is currently in.

Mastercard is tapping into this technology to help cardholders see the true possibilities with their card benefits. Here’s how it works:

• A user launches the AR app and scans his Mastercard to access applicable benefits.
• The user scans the area around him. Mastercard will point out areas that may connect to the card benefits.
• Card benefits are broken into categories. If the user wants to learn more about a benefit category, he can click on the prompt to launch a virtual environment.
• The user can continue exploring the virtual environment to see more examples of card benefits in action.

According to J.D. Power’s 2019 Credit Card Satisfaction Study, only 36% of cardholders truly understand their card benefits. Cardholders who understand their benefits report significantly higher card satisfaction rates. Mastercard aims to ensure that their cardmembers have a clear idea of what their benefits are and how they can be used in real-world settings.