Contactless mobile phone payments
This sounds interesting, and I think it’s quite cool too…OK I’m sad for getting excited about things like this.
The Royal Bank of Scotland has today announced it plans to run internal trials with a contactless mobile phone payment system until the end of the year. If the trials are successful they will look to roll out customer trials in early 2008.
The system will be called ‘Tap n Go’ and will revolutionise the way people shop and make their daily debit transactions. The idea is you place your mobile phone on a contactless payment terminal and your transaction is processed in seconds. This will mean that you could buy a coffee or a book without opening your wallet. The payment system will only work for amounts under £10. Very cool, if you ask me!
Chief Executive of Consumer Banking at The Royal Bank of Scotland, Paul Geddes said: “RBS was the first bank in Europe to carry out a public Contactless Card debit payment and we have now repeated this feat with a successful Mobile Phone Contactless debit payment at our Headquarters. We decided to trial this payment innovation because we think people will really welcome the speed and convenience of reaching for their mobile phone to make a payment, instead of worrying about whether they have enough loose change in their pocket or locating their wallet. This is yet another example of RBS delivering new and innovative ways for customers to make payments - it’s about speed, safety and convenience.
“Mobile phones are playing an increasingly important role in our day to day lives. According to official figures, 80% of UK adults own at least one mobile. As we constantly look for ways to improve customer convenience, we therefore believe that mobile phones will be the next step in the payments evolution.
“What’s more, we think that retailers will welcome Mobile Phone Contactless payments because quicker transaction times equals faster moving queues and ultimately happier customers.”
All sounds good to me, it should, in theory, be much quicker to simply touch your mobile phone against a payment terminal and off you go. It should also make the shops happy because it means less time at the till for their staff and their customers. Speedy shopping and less of our time wasted in queues! I suppose you’d need everyone in the shop to be paying by mobile for it to have any affect – oh well, I still think its cool.
November 28th, 2007 at 2:53 pm
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