Filed under: Cellphones

Neither mobile banking apps nor mobile payment technologies are anything new, but the depth of Visa’s newfound commitment to anything and everything mobile here is pretty unique. The company has announced a slew of initiatives to make it as frighteningly easy as possible for cardholders to do cool things with their accounts right from their phones starting with the launch of the Nokia 6212 Classic next month, which will serve up NFC-based contactless payments, cardholder-to-cardholder transfers, and realtime account alerts (subject to issuing bank availability). Meanwhile, they’ve wasted no time jumping on the Android bandwagon, revealing that they’ve hooked up with Chase to offer an Android app that delivers notifications, merchant “offers,” and a location-based search of nearby retailers that accept Visa cards (which is pretty much all of them in our experience). If the Chase trial pans out, Visa plans to shop the Android app around to other issuing banks. Finally, there’s also a new web-based mobile money transfer pilot going down that’s scheduled to kick off around the end of the year involving several banks and “as many as” 6,000 cardholders; what are the odds that those 6,000 are going to be transferring much money among each other, though?

[Via CNET]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

We’ve definitely seen some outlandish attempts at improving or outright replacing the humble credit card, but South Koreans will soon be able pay for purchases using the most easy-to-lose system we’ve seen yet — by inserting a special USB flash drive into a slot. The system, which is being rolled out by Shinhan Card and VIsa, also lets users pay for online purchases by sticking the drive into their computers’ USB ports, and Shinhan is also rolling out new terminals that will enable contactless payments using the device as well. Of course, the drive itself is locked down tighter than a drum, but we still aren’t convinced a bulky flash drive is a better option than phone-based or biometric payment systems.

[Via The Raw Feed]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Wireless

In the latest scheme to make it just a little easier for you to part with your money, Visa has begun rolling out its Micro Tag key fobs for contactless (and if under $25, signature-less) payments. The issuer-customizable Tags are based on Visa’s payWave technology — an RFID system similar to MasterCard’s PayPass — and are meant to act as companions to existing credit and debit cards. To commemorate the launch, Visa passed out 1,000 Tags pre-loaded with $15 at yesterday’s San Francisco Giants game at AT&T Park, encouraging fans to purchase the fatty stadium concessions that could perhaps lull them into the false notion that this a completely secure payment method.

[Via Geekzone]

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