EFTM - Tech, Cars and Lifestyle · Trevor Long

A follow up with Sue re Optus and Aspera - Plus talking payments with Mastercard

March 11, 2025·1 hr 8 min·5 clips

Mastercard's Sirin Fernando explains how numberless cards create disposable card numbers for every purchase to stop fraud.

This episode of the EFTM Podcast features host Trevor Long discussing listener tech issues and interviewing Sirin Fernando from Mastercard about payment innovations. Long first addresses a caller's persistent problem with a faulty Samsung QLED TV and later provides an update on a previous caller, Sue, who had mobile network issues. Caller David describes a persistently "foggy" picture on his 65-inch Samsung QLED, a problem that remained across three replacement TVs. Trevor Long suggests the issue might be with David's antenna or home environment rather than the TVs themselves. Long advises David to hire an antenna technician before escalating to Samsung for further support. Sirin Fernando, Mastercard's Head of Customer Solutions, explains two key innovations: numberless cards and the Mastercard One credential. Numberless cards remove the 16-digit number from the physical card to combat fraud from lost or stolen mail. The Mastercard One system allows a single credential to dynamically route payments between debit, credit, or buy-now-pay-later options based on user-set rules. Fernando reveals that numberless cards are already live with AMP Bank in Australia. He states that Mastercard One will launch with partners later in 2025. He notes that while Australia leads in in-store mobile payments, it lags in online payment security, with less than 10% of online transactions using biometric authentication. Fernando shares that card fraud represents a billion-dollar problem in Australia. He gives a personal example of using a temporary card number for a restaurant reservation in Singapore, which expired after use. The system also allows users to set transaction limits or expiry dates for generated card numbers. Host Trevor Long provides a positive update on Sue, who received a new Aspera F50 flip phone after her Doro phone failed following the 3G shutdown. Optus informed Long that Sue's Doro was a European model not supported in Australia. Sue reports that Optus provided a $100 credit for a year of service and a goodwill refund for her unusable phone. The episode maintains a conversational and advisory tone, blending listener call-ins with expert interviews. Listeners interested in practical tech troubleshooting and the future of financial technology will find this episode valuable. Those seeking deep, single-topic narratives or purely entertainment-focused content might prefer to skip it.

As heard by us

A clear look at how payments are moving from plastic to everywhere.

Trevor Long frames the discussion around Formula One week, but the stronger thread is practical: how payments are shifting toward digital wallets, encrypted card details, numberless cards, and a future that reaches into cars, connected homes, and even sunglasses.

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Why you'd press play

You want the next wave of card payments explained without the jargon, from an Australian consumer angle.

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