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We see many credit card issuers moving toward replacing horizontal credit or debit cards with vertical ones. This tendency is growing as chip and tap-to-pay payments continue to gain popularity.
Credit cards have undergone many changes in design throughout their history: from being a small piece of cardboard with horizontal design to becoming plastic with magnetic stripe, metal, and then digital cards, all with the same horizontal orientation.
Today cards with vertical designs appear more often. It's believed that switch to a vertical layout is inevitable and influenced by social networks and the way consumers tend to use their credit cards these days. For example, with chip readers and ATMs, credit cards are inserted vertically. Vertical-oriented cards are also better suited for contactless payments when we tap a card or wave our phone to pay for a purchase.
The way we use our cards inspires credit card issuers. Thus, PayPal released new debit and credit cards with designs in portrait orientation for its Venmo app. Bank of America also introduced a debit card with a new vertical design. And many of us have probably seen BuyPower Cards issued by Capital One and Virgin America Visa cards, all with the portrait card design.
As the world is becoming more of the portrait mode, it's quite logical for debit and credit cards to change too. The pandemic also accelerated the acceptance of contactless cards, which makes card payments faster and safer. So, the vertical card design can become a new design of future cards.
