Banks and financial institutions have been doing their best to eliminate the use of paper money for decades now. And by and large, they’ve done an excellent job. Credit and debit cards have just about taken over to the point where good old-fashioned cash is quickly becoming a quaint relic of days gone by.

But just when we have begun to get comfortable with using plastic money, it seems the banks have decided that credit cards are now passé, and should be replaced with a more high-tech option. Enter the flash drive payment system.

South Korean banks have just launched a new payment system designed to replace those old-fashioned bulky credit cards. The new system is a credit-enabled Visa flash drive that must be inserted into a USB slot at the retail point of sale. The flash drive Visa itself has rock-solid security, but many experts fear that it may be the easiest-to-lose payment system ever developed.

To guard against losing the tiny USB flash drive credit card, companies such as Visa are shipping the drives standard in a necklace or choker-type configuration to be worn around the neck. Is this the start of a new fashion trend — wearing your bank balance around your neck? We’ll see.

So, assuming you don’t lose the USB enabled Visa flash drive the first time you go out shopping, how is using a flash drive payment system better (or worse) than a standard credit card? Financial experts claim that the flash drive system is faster to use at retail outlets — so that’s one plus.

But the coolest feature of trading in your old square plastic Visa, for a USB flash drive Visa is the ability to interface directly with your computer. Why on earth would you want to do that? Lots of reasons, including being able to check your account balance and card history at a moment’s notice by just inserting the drive into any computer USB port.

Or how about shopping online? The USB flash drive Visa allows you to pay for items online by simply inserting your Visa drive into the USB port of your computer. This could potentially save a great deal of time filling out secure online payment forms and going through security checks.

The flash drive payment systems also have a pin number, just like any standard credit card. This gives you some protection over having your account emptied by a pickpocket or someone who finds your drive lying around on the sidewalk (and you know there will be plenty of those). So security wise, the flash drive appears about the same as a standard credit or debit card.

But there is one major security difference between a standard credit card and the Visa USB flash drive: it won’t fit in your wallet. This may seem like a small detail, but consider how easy it is to lose things that are not in your wallet or pocketbook.

Most of us have come to associate security with our wallets, so we take extra special care to know their whereabouts at all times, and protect them from prying eyes. But when it comes to a flash drive worn around your neck, all bets are off.