More cell phone operators and financial companies are jumping on the mobile financial-service bandwagon, but it remains to be seen if U.S. cell phone subscribers are even interested.
Sprint Nextel announced on Thursday that it will be the latest U.S. wireless carrier to offer its mobile-phone customers the ability to bank from their mobile handsets. The new MyMoneyManager service is a free downloadable application that enables cell phone subscribers to check bank balances, pay bills, and find nearby branches or ATMs from their handsets.
Sprint has initially partnered with four banks, BB&T, Citibank, IBC Bank, and PNC Bank, to provide the application. It plans to add other banks at a future date. And it will eventually bundle the application into some of its handsets.
Credit card giant Visa also announced several mobile initiatives Thursday. Specifically, it plans to enable its customers to transfer money, make payments, and receive real-time account notification alerts on their Nokia phones, as well as cell phones using the Google Android operating system. Visa also struck a mobile deal with U.S. Bank that will enable individuals to make money transfers from one Visa cardholder's account to another.
Initiatives to make bill payments and other banking tasks phone-friendly have been hyped over the past couple of years. Mobile banking is one of several new mobile services, such as music downloading and TV viewing, that have been enabled by faster 3G wireless networks.
And for the past couple of years, financial institutions and cell phone operators have been rolling out new services and applications.
Most banks participating
Most of the major U.S. banks already offer some kind of mobile-banking technology, according to market research firm Celent. And the two largest mobile operators in the States have also introduced mobile-payment and banking options.
AT&T launched a mobile-payment application made available through Firethorn, which has since been acquired by Qualcomm, in March 2007. The telecommunications giant has also been running trials with Nokia to turn cell phones into debit cards, allowing people to make purchases with their cell phones. And Verizon Wireless, which also uses Firethorn, launched its mobile-banking application in January 2008.
But despite the fact that there are many options and opportunities for cell phone subscribers to access their banking information and pay their bills on their mobile phones, the uptake for these applications and services has been pretty weak. According to Forrester Research, only about 3 percent of mobile subscribers in North America check financial accounts on their mobile phone at least once a month. This rate of adoption is lower than that of services like music downloading, which 5 percent of mobile users say they do at least once monthly.
... Read moreSprint Nextel announced Thursday a new downloadable application that will let its subscribers bank and pay bills from their cell phones.
The new application called MyMoneyManager will provide online banking access to accounts with BB&T, Citibank, IBC Bank and PNC Bank. Subscribers with accounts at these banks will be able to check balances, pay bills, and find nearby branches with ATMs using the application on their phone. Sprint subscribers must have a Web-enabled phone and a wireless data plan to access the service.
The MyMoneyManager application is available at no additional charge to Sprint data subscribers. In the future, Sprint plans to preload MyMoneyManager on phones. It will also include additional banks and other financial service providers.
The application also comes with a special Send Money feature from PayPal. This feature allows mobile users to check their PayPal account balance and send money to other PayPal users.
Visa also announced several mobile initiatives Thursday. The credit card processing giant said it will allow its credit card customers to transfer money, make payments, and receive real-time account notification alerts on their Nokia phones and cell phones using the Google Android operating system. T-Mobile USA announced the first Android-based phone, the G1, earlier this week. Visa also struck a mobile deal with U.S. Bank, allowing individuals to make money transfers from one Visa cardholder's account to another.
The mobile banking and bill paying market is set to explode over the next several years, according to Celent, a Boston-based financial research and consulting firm. For more on that story, check out CNET News on Friday for a more in-depth feature on mobile banking and bill paying.
Visa is adding a wireless twist to the old phrase "Charge It."
The credit card processing giant announced Thursday several initiatives to allow its credit card toting customers the ability to transfer money, make payments, and receive real-time account notification alerts on their Nokia and Android cellular phones. Visa also struck a mobile deal with U.S. Bank.
Under a pilot program with U.S. Bank, which is scheduled to begin by the end of the year, Visa will offer mobile money transfers from one Visa cardholder's account to another. A U.S. Bank Visa cardholder would use a Web browser on their phone to access funds and transfer it directly to the recipient's account. The recipient could then withdraw the funds from an ATM machine, or use the money to make purchases.
Visa is also working with cell phone giant Nokia and new entrant Google's Android to offer mobility to its service.
The Visa-Android deal calls for Chase Visa cardholders to use their Android phone for not only transferring money, but also to receive real-time email alerts when transactions happen on their Visa account, receive offers from merchants, and view images on Google maps to find the location of those merchants who are offering the specials. The Google-Visa deal is expected to begin sometime by the end of the year.
Visa has also struck a similar deal with Nokia for its Nokia 6212 Classic phone. That service is expected to beginning next month.
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