Text Message Smiley Faces are Old News–Now it’s all About the Greens $$

It is not uncommon today to see people all around us walking with their eyes to the floor. A few years ago my first thought would be that the general population is in a state of depression with no reason to walk with their heads up high. Could this be a bi-product of the “emo” music revolution? Or maybe it’s a lack of proper bed pillows?

Neither. These people are only text messaging.

Following big brother E-mail, the text message language has become a substitute for conversation. But who needs eye-contact and the feeling of interpersonal communication? Leave that for the job interview. Now, many day to day activities can be done over the phone. Whether it is checking the weather, finding driving directions, buying music, watching TV, or inquiring what time little Timmy needs to be picked up from school, it can all be done in the palm of our hand. If only (sigh)…if only we could make monetary transactions and interact with banks through our phones–that would be a godsend. You’re smart so you can see where I am going with this.

Money Transfer through your phone.

That’s right, peer to peer (P2P) money transfer will be at your fingertips. But at this moment you are asking yourself: is this safe? What are the restrictions? Who provides the service and on what phones (if not all)? And rightfully so!! This is YOUR money!!

International company Vodafone and Citigroup are of the first few to make an attempt. Vodafone and Citigroup are working in conjunction in this venture. From the information currently available, the working system seems simple. Keyword is seems. Here is a quick breakdown of how it will work.

A sender (remitter) of the money initiates the transaction using options that can be set either directly on the phone or through an internet account. The money can be sent directly to the bank of the receiver (beneficiary), or directly to that person’s mobile phone. In the latter case, the receiver will receive the money in the form of a voucher and secure PIN. With these two bits of information, he or she can redeem the money at “a wide range of outlets” according to MobileTechNews.com.

However, like any other technological innovation, there is an alternative. This time in the form of a service called TextPayMe. In fact, this service was founded in 2005, which begs the question of why this service seems (to me and my peers) to be previously unheard of. Probably because up until now, a P2P money transfer service has been a risky practice.

Different from Vodafone’s approach, TextPayMe, is quite simpler. With an account at TextPayMe (set up an the TextPayMe website), a person only has to enter “the recipient's cell phone number or alias and the amount they wish to send. The transaction is instantaneous.” That is, according to their website. The user then confirms the transaction using a confidential PIN. It is even possible to pay by credit card! Done and done.

Nice, I say!

From what I can see, there are many benefits here. It is one that Vodafone recognizes as well–that sending money to family members (many immigrant families as well) in different countries will be made a lot easier. Both approaches to P2P money transfer seem nice, but I still feel a bit reluctant for fear of some sort of identity theft over the wireless networks. But guaranteed a safe route, I would actually try this out. This might become the way to make ALL transactions in the near future so might as well go with it.

Cough, Cough. Record companies, do you hear the money rolling in?

With ease of payment becoming even more easy, and with phones being used as music libraries more often, the big 4 record companies can make this a marketing tactic. They could create incentive for buying CD’s by working with a company like Vodafone or TextPayMe where if you buy using a mobile phone, the music is directly downloaded to the phone and/or sent to your home the next day– just one of many ways to milk this. Heck I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple’s new baby, the iPhone, will be extremely user friendly to this type of application.

In a matter of seconds, I can finally pay back my friends for that “Shirley Temple” that they bought me this past weekend. No more debt collector/peers at my door!



Mobile Tech News- Vodafone and Citigroup launch money-transfer service
http://www.mobiletechnews.com/info/2007/02/12/061844.html

PaymentsNews- TextPayMe Announces SMS-based Money Transfer
http://www.paymentsnews.com/2005/12/textpayme_annou.html