Mobile Payments Plan For US

Written by Adam Gosling

Friday, 07 April 2006

PayPal is bringing in a mobile phone payments system into the US and Canada whereby users can make payments and donate to charities using their mobile phone. PayPal, a company owned by auction house eBay, has offices in Australia, so the system may become available locally soon. The system uses text messaging and is backed by PayPal’s financial and anti-fraud systems which were initially developed for the auction website, but are now used for a wide range of ecommerce transactions on the Internet. The system only works with merchants who have signed up to receive payments in this way. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, Bravo, MTV, and the NBA Store have agreed to use the system in the US and charities such as Amnesty International, Starlight Starbright and UNICEF are also accepting donations in this way. Before using the system existing PayPal users need to log into their account and activiatemobile payments by registering their mobile phone number and selecting a PIN. Then to buy a product which is designated as available for mobile payment, the user sends a text message to PayPal who then calls the user back to confirm the payment. PayPal then sends the money to the recipient. Once the merchant receives the payment, the item is shipped to the address saved in the user's PayPal account unless the purchase is for a service. The users’ financial information is not shared with the recipient and the transaction details are stored on PayPal's secure servers rather than the mobile phone. Related news items Nokia E51: Smarter Than It Looks -19/09/2007 Footy On Your Phone -16/09/2007 Telstra Launches Another Coonan Attack -12/09/2007 Australian Idol Live On Next G -19/08/2007 Doh! Phone Pirate Could Get Five Years -17/08/2007 Newer news items 3G Used To Push Data To Electronic Signs -27/09/2006 38 Per Cent Of Execs Feel Over Connected -05/09/2006 MobileActive Is In The House -09/08/2006 SMS Surveys Get You On The Run -13/07/2006 Office Integrated With Ericsson One Phone -06/06/2006 Older news items Mobile LAN With Internet Access -31/03/2006 AdultShop.com Buys Loop Wireless -15/03/2006 Vodafone Delivers Microsoft Email To Australian Market -12/03/2006 MICROSOFT MOBILE EMAIL ANNOUNCED -12/02/2006 EMAIL ON ANY MOBILE PHONE -24/01/2006 Tag This Now: