Visa Unveils Massive Mobile Payment Plans (PC Magazine)
Mark Hachman - ExtremeTech Thu Sep 25, 9:55 AM ET
Visa unveiled several partnerships on Thursday to move payment processing from the PC to the mobile phone.
The world's largest credit-card organization said a partnership with Nokia would allow consumers to make payments with next year's Nokia 6212 Classic and other next-generation Nokia phones. Visa will also develop an application with Google's Android platform that will allow mobile payments, as well as deliver financial information to Android-based phone owners who also hold Chase Visa cards.
Visa also said that it would launch a trial with U.S. Bank and up to 6,000 cardholders to allow secure funds transfers to other Visa cardholders via mobile phones and PDAs. Finally, the credit merchant said that it was expanding its ReadyLink pre-paid service.
"For decades Visa has been changing the way people think about and use money with great success, but there is still tremendous opportunity to extend the benefits of electronic payments to consumers and business around the world," said Bill Sheedy, president of Visa North America, in a statement. "Capturing that opportunity requires innovative products and ideas that deliver measurable benefits to meet the needs of consumers, merchants and financial institutions. Along with our partners, that's what Visa has shown today, and continues to develop every day."
The Nokia-Visa partnership is centered around phones that contain Near-Field Communications chips, essentially a wireless smartcard that can only operate at ranges of about four inches. The NFC technology uses ISO 14443-specified protocols, which mean that they can communicate with other devices that accept smartcards, such as public transportation systems.
Visa has already trialed NFC-equipped, pay-by-phone technology with Wells Fargo. The new Nokia-Visa payment collaboration will be offered to "interested financial institutions". With the new technology, consumers will be able to use their Visa account to pay for goods and services; initiate mobile money transfers to other individuals with Visa accounts; receive near real-time notifications of activity on their Visa account; and "opt in" to receive offers and discounts from merchants, Visa said.
The Visa-Nokia platform is designed for the 6212 Classic and other phones; according to Visa, the 6212 Classic will launch in Oct. 2009.
Likewise, Visa is developing a set of services with Google, aligned around the Android operating system that was formally launched as part of the T-Mobile G1 on Tuesday. The G1 includes dedicated support for a mobile version of Google's browser, Google applications like Google Mail, and innovative location-based features such as a version of Google Maps' Street View that orients the view from the user's perspective.
Location is also a focus for the Visa-Google partnership. The first set of services that Visa is planning to develop for Android will allow Chase Visa cardholders to receive notifications to their mobile devices about transaction activity on their accounts; obtain offers from a wide array of merchants; and use the built-in location-based technology developed by Google to quickly map nearby merchants where they can redeem Visa offers and locate ATMs that accept Visa.
"Visa is also developing a payment application that will enable consumers with Visa accounts to make mobile payments in retail locations nationwide, or while on the go, over wireless networks," Visa said, without elucidating.
Visa representatives weren't immediately available for comment.
Visa also said that it would partner with U.S. Bancorp, the owner of U.S. Bank, to allow consumers to transfer money from one Visa customer to another by way of mobile phones through a pilot program. Other unnamed banks will also be involved, Visa said.
Visa cardholders participating in the pilot will be able to initiate money transfer transactions using a mobile Web browser, Visa said. The transferred funds will be credited directly to the recipient's Visa account. The recipient can then access the funds via a cash withdrawal at an ATM or by making a purchase at any merchant that accepts Visa products. Visa money transfers will also be allowed at ATMs, kiosks, and banks, Visa said.
Visa already has similar money transfer services in thirteen countries in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
eBay's PayPal service, meanwhile, struck back by announcing a partnership with Sprint. Most Sprint phones – excluding those on the Sprint Nextel network – will be able to transfer money via a downloadable MyMoneyManager application that hooks into PayPal. The application is free with existing data plans.
Sprint customers with BB&T, Citibank, IBC Bank and PNC Bank accounts can use the application, which also allows them to check balances and transfer funds between accounts. In the future, Sprint plans to preload MyMoneyManager on phones and include additional banks and other financial service providers, the company said.
Visa also announced the expansion of Visa ReadyLink, its prepaid reload service, to enable the reload of eligible Visa prepaid products at ATMs across the U.S.
Visa executives also said they're ready for the holiday crush. VisaNet, Visa's proprietary, centralized processing system, has been tested at 11,000 transaction messages per second, Visa said. That's 45 percent higher than the peak transactions-per-second rate Visa experienced on Dec. 22, 2007, at the peak of the holiday shopping season.