Consumers approve contactless mobile payment

The results of Australia's first trial of contactless mobile phone payments have shown Australians show a strong liking for the technology, with 90% of participants very or extremely satisfied. A three-month trial at Melbourne's Docklands, organised by Telstra, National Australia Bank and Visa, found 95% said they were likely to use the technology while 78% said paying using a mobile phone was better than paying with cash.

The technology involves users downloading an NAB Visa credit card software application to a Telstra SIM card, then waving their mobile phone over a Visa PayWave reader. The costs of purchases are charged to a NAB Visa credit card account.

Telstra enterprise and government group managing director David Thodey said the results were encouraging.

"Overwhelmingly the trial participants told us that they saw genuine value in the ability to make smaller transactions, such as for coffees and papers, with a wave of the phone rather than fumbling for change.

"Importantly the businesses that took part in the trial were strong supporters of the technology, seeing it as a way to boost their productivity by serving customers faster."

NAB regional general manager, consumer product solutions John Salamito said the bank was pleased from the results of the trial.

"Exploring and introducing the latest advancements in technology to make our customers' and merchants' everyday banking and transactions easier, faster and more convenient is very important to NAB. Now we know that mobile payments can work successfully."

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written by Leonie_SavingMoneyExpert, October 06, 2010

I would love to see this technology take off, In addition to this, i'd also like to see smaller purchases paid for by credit or EFTPOS plastic, become commonplace. In places such as the US you can pay for anything with a credit or debit card, no one minds about the size of the transaction. he benefits are great, no more carrying cash, accurate budgeting. If you're able to pay for everything electronicaly, you actually know where you're money is going. The banks should take this one step further and develop secure personal budgeting platforms on the web that import your transactional information. If you withdraw cash all the time, how do you know what you spend it on? All those coffee's add up and im not keying in the receipts.

I wrote an article about this idea in my blog SavingMoneyExpert.com.au - see http://savingmoneyexpert.com.a...y-spending