I left my payment cards at home yesterday. And… it didn’t matter. It’s getting easier these days to keep that card in your pocket — or wherever.

For example, BMO Harris announced this week it is enabling cardless cash withdrawals at 750 ATMs — about half its total fleet. Customers will instead place orders on their mobile devices then present the QR codes on those devices — and watches, soon? — at the ATM to get the cash.

Consider it Step Two of the grand plan to replace cards with mobile devices, Step One being mobile payments from Apple Pay and the like. Mobile may help stem card fraud — though the recent fraud news on Apple Pay suggests all parties need to work a bit harder on mobile security.

Except cards aren’t being replaced at all; they’re being digitized. With a few exceptions, mobile payments are still firmly stuck on the card rails. This is true for Facebook’s new ‘Send Money’ feature as well, as Dwolla’s Ben Milne was quick to point out. MCX, with its CurrentC technology, has made noise about using ACH to save on card fees, as does mobile startup Doublebeam. LevelUp, which is seeing success whitelabelling its app, bundles transactions to cut down on interchange fees. Beyond those, and especially with media darlings Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, it’s the card networks for the win.

This comes at a time when banks are facing the unwelcome expense of rolling out chip (EMV) cards to customers in advance of October’s liability shift. After Oct. 1, if a customer presents his EMV card and it is processed as a magstripe AND fraud occurs, the merchant, not the bank, will be liable for the fraud. But still, many merchants and banks will miss the deadline to get all systems up to date for EMV transactions.

EMV cards take longer to process, and that could lead to frustration on Black Friday — if enough EMV cards and terminals are out there. Mobile payments are faster. Mobile payments enthusiasts speculate that sluggish EMV transactions will lead to more mobile payments.

Could be. Despite being cardless for a whole day, I knew that if I stuck to the right places, I’d be able to access the funds in my bank account using my phone. And there are more of those places all the time.