Payments Council project to help make paying by mobile easier
With over 45 million of us already using a mobile, it's not surprising that the mobile phone is the number two item that we wouldn't leave home without, only beaten by our means to make a payment - wallets and purses. However, it might not be too long before the mobile takes over the top spot, as the Payments Council today announces an industry-wide project that will help participating banks and building societies deliver mobile payments in the UK. Within as little as a couple of years customers will be able to send money using only their mobile phone: either by using text; an app; or their phone's internet browser.
This project focuses on transferring money from one account to another - so you could pay another person or a business, and differs from recent launches which allow phones with built-in card technology to mimic a contactless card payment.
The Payments Council has kicked off this project as part of its commitment to lead innovation in payments. The first step will be to scope out what the core service might look like for customers so potential suppliers and project costs can be identified. The aim is to make sure that this offers an attractive new service to personal customers in the UK. The Payments Council will give the final green light after considering the business case later this year. And while it is still early days, initial research suggests that almost a quarter (23%) of consumers are likely to want to use a new mobile payments service.
This latest development will be a further addition to the way we use our mobile phones nowadays. Long gone are the days when we simply used mobiles to ‘just' make a phone call. Over half of us (51%) use our mobile to take photographs, while over a third (37%) of us browse the internet on our mobile phones. 34% of us use our phone as an address book and a quarter of us (25%) listen to music on our phones.
And it is text messaging in particular that we increasingly use in our day-to-day lives - 91% of Brits say they use text messages. Over half of us (55%) use text to arrange meetings or to ‘check in' with people (54%), while 46% have entire conversations via text.
Gary Hocking, Payments Council Acting Chief Executive comments: "Mobile phones are no longer only used as a way to contact people; their functionality has increased dramatically over recent years and the mobile phone is now something which many of us cannot do without. The introduction of mobile payments will offer more choice to customers, simplifying how we can make a financial transaction and increasing flexibility in our everyday lives. And who knows - we may see the wallet dropping off its top spot in the not too distant future!
"It is still early days in this project but we want to explore how a mobile phone can help customers make a payment from one account to another. Of course security is a priority for us, and the work being done to bring this technology to life will focus on this. This industry-wide project will help deliver a way of sending money that is safe and easy for consumers."
The Payments Council is urging people who want to understand more about their payment options, or to test how much they think they know, to visit payyourway.org.uk, or to follow the campaign at twitter.com/PayYOURwayUK The website's educational content will be regularly updated and leaflets will also be available.