Credit card companies really want to put payment technology in your clothes

You can buy things with cash, a credit card, your phone, or even your watch, but the latest initiatives from Visa and MasterCard is to let you buy things with everything else you might carry around on you. At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, both companies announced further plans to put payment technologies in connected devices, such as clothing, wearables, cars, and appliances.

Visa's new program for connected device makers is called Visa Ready, and lets them integrate secure, tokenized payment features into their products. Visa says that it will initially be used in wearables and cars, and it has signed up companies such as Chronos, Coin, and Pebble to make use of the new platform. Last year, Swatch announced a partnership with Visa to put NFC-based payments in its line of analog watches.