In this Money Matters report, Time Warner Cable News’ Tara Lynn Wagner looks at how the future of payments is right at your fingertips.

When it comes to making payments, credit cards are practically prehistoric.

"It's a 40 year old technology,” says Jason Oxman, CEO of  Electronic Transactions Association. “Same technology used in cassette tapes."

Sure, credit cards recently got a reboot in the form of a chip, but the real innovation is happening outside your wallet. The future is calling and it wants to talk about mobile payments.

"It includes the ability to use a watch, like a wearable, as well as using your mobile phone to pay,” Oxman says. “It's incredibly fun to use, it's reliable but it's also the most secure payments technology ever deployed."

In part because of biometrics, which are making crackable passwords a thing of the past.

"Whether it's a fingerprint or facial recognition technology, voice recognition - so something that in theory should be harder to replicate,” says Gil Mermelstein, managing director at West Monroe Partners.

Harder, but not impossible, which is why newer technologies will go even further.

"Recognizing the veins underneath the fingerprint, which kind of sounds very futuristic but exists already,” Mermelstein says.

The goal here is not only to make payments more secure, but also as quick and easy as possible, by tapping into behaviors we already have.

MasterCard will be introducing a feature this summer that will allow consumers to pay by selfie.  You will have to blink to prove it is really you, and not just a picture of you. And these innovations aren't limited to your phone. 

Future ATMs will likely include retinal scanners or facial recognition, eliminating the need for a card or a pin.  Diebold unveiled a concept model last year that they say could complete a cash withdrawal in less than 10 seconds.

"Something that takes too long is not going to win in the market,” Mermelstein says.

According to the Federal Reserve, 28 percent of smartphone owners have used it to make a mobile payment - a number Oxman expects to skyrocket in the near future. 

"Once consumers get accustomed to how easy it is, how convenient it is and understand how secure it is as well, I think we'll move very quickly to rapid adoption of mobile payments,” he says.