On my way home today I heard an interesting story on NPR. It seems like men have been carrying around wallets and women have carried purses for a long time. With today's advancements and technology, more specifically mobile technology, I'm surprised that we have not been able to more fully utilize mobile payments. Today's smart phones have so much processing power and so much capability that we could easily and securely store the tiny amount of information that is stored on magnetic credit card slips.
Why is it that we can sit at home on the Internet and purchase just about anything we need or want with a few clicks of the mouse and have it delivered to her door, yet when we venture down to the corner gas station or supermarket we must carry a bulky wallet with credit cards, cash, and store loyalty cards. It seems to me that smart phones are so functional, as they now take pictures, play music, deliver and send e-mail, and so much more. Why couldn't we store our payment information on the phones as well and use them as a mechanism for paying for purchases on a mass scale?
It seems so impractical to carry a wallet, when we so often use only one thing and it. Maybe it's a credit card, a medical insurance card, or a store loyalty card. There are several application and hardware developers that are working on mobile payment options that will be secure, convenient, and easy to use.
One such company is Bling Nation, It utilizes a small sticker containing a microchip that is affixed to the back of a mobile phone. At stores that accept Bling Nation payments, you simply touch the tag on the back of the phone to a special terminal, and the money is then deducted from your account, and you are on your way.
Another recent pioneer in the area of mobile payments is Square. By utilizing a tiny device that plugs into the headphone jack of iPhones, users are able to accept credit card payments wherever they are. For instance, let's say you are splitting the cost of a meal with a friend. You plan on paying via credit card, as does your friend. If the restaurant did not split the check, what are you to do? With Square, you can swipe your friends credit card for the amount he or she is responsible for, and the money is deposited into your account, after a small transaction fee is deducted. You now can pay for the entire restaurant bill with your own credit card, having already been reimbursed for your friends portion. Pretty convenient.
What do you think the future holds for mobile payments? Do you ever foresee a time when all of our identity and financial information can be handled on mobile devices, and we will no longer need to carry identification cards, insurance cards, and credit cards?
