AT&T, Verizon May Turn Your Smartphone Into A Credit Card (VIDEO)

Could your smartphone replace your credit card?

Bloomberg, citing "three people with direct knowledge of the plan," says AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile are planning to equip their smartphones with technology that would permit customers to make "contactless" payments using their phones.

Like "wave and pay" credit cards or key fobs, users would be able to purchase items just by waving their smartphones over transaction machines. The technology itself is not new, but, if the rumors are true, it would be the biggest effort yet by the carriers to develop this form of contactless mobile payments.

Bloomberg writes:

The service, similar to those already available in Japan, Turkey and the U.K., would use contactless technology to complete purchases in stores. They'd be processed through Discover's payments network, currently the fourth-biggest behind Visa, MasterCard and American Express Co. Barclays would be the bank helping to manage the accounts, said the [sources], who requested anonymity because of confidentiality agreements.

Although official representatives for Verizon and T-Mobile were tight-lipped about the venture, AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel told Bloomberg, "Mobile payments are the logical next step for consumers."

The Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile will reportedly begin testing this new system at select stores in Atlanta and three other cities.

Scroll down for a brief clip from ABC News, which shows how the technology would work.

What do you think of it? Would it be helpful? Tell us what you think in the comments below.

WATCH: [via ABC News]

Comments

[hommie]

01:20 AM on 08/04/2010

old news ..... just catching up ... there places is the developing world where banking is done through your cellphone

[MilesLong]

12:03 AM on 08/04/2010

Great ides!! That is, until you misplace your phone...

Miles "Finders, Keepers" Long

[GeorgeBurnsWasRight]

11:32 PM on 08/03/2010

Phones may be getting smarter, but people are getting dumber, so the balance of the universe remains constant.

[AirViceMarshalPark]

11:31 PM on 08/03/2010

This has been available in Scandinavia since about 1985 when you could even use them at soft drink machines. Phones are crashingly boring.

[ALipschitz]

11:05 PM on 08/03/2010

I wonder how the security works when devices are used as credit cards. If you forget your phone somewhere can someone take it and run to a store quick and use it?

[lendmeanear]

10:54 PM on 08/03/2010

They've been doing this in foreign countries for years. Not a biggie.

[asjogren]

10:45 PM on 08/03/2010

I don't need a credit card that can easily be hacked or stolen in a mobile phone.

How about opening up ALL of North America in your standard plans - no roaming charges in Mexico or in Canada, data plans work with no extra fees in Mexico and Canada, texting plans with no extra fees in Mexico and Canada? If I have 1000 minutes per month in my plan, let me use it in any of te NAFTA countries.

Your business is communication - not banking.

[mododavid]

08:57 PM on 08/03/2010

1) so they emit your information to the machine...and how long until someone develops and sells a device which can read that information from behind you?
2) How much power over your life are you willing to buy from one company? Cause you certainly won't own it anymore.

[xilduq]

08:41 PM on 08/03/2010

my prepaid cellular phone can place telephone calls AND send and receive text messages, all without an "agreement" where you sign away your firstborn in exchange for shi++y service.

[billybuck]

07:34 PM on 08/03/2010

Here in Japan, they have been doing that for a long long time. That's old news. Very useful, I hope that it catches on back home.

[RegLib2]

06:42 PM on 08/03/2010

The Japanese have been doing this for years.

[Scytherius]

07:05 PM on 08/03/2010

Exactly. Old news. Americans don't really realize how far we are technologically behind the rest of the Western world.

[lendmeanear]

10:55 PM on 08/03/2010

You know it.

[angrymanspokane]

06:32 PM on 08/03/2010

Too easy to buy, too easy to steal. But please, give me another freaking password to remember.

[Bluesman2008]

08:09 PM on 08/03/2010

The safety concerns will make me opt out of that one. Smart phones are too easy to hack. I've already had to replace my debit card twice already because of bogus charges. I can't help but believe that situation will get worse if we adopt this technology. The day I get so lazy that I need to swipe a cell phone rather than reach into my wallet and use my debit card is the day I'll hang it all up. Just my two centavos.

[onlinesavant]

12:55 PM on 08/03/2010

Before you histrionic hens start cackling about some grand conspiracy in all this, let's not forget that this is not new technology. Like so many innovations, and contrary to what we've been told by the conservatives in this country, we DO NOT lead the world in all measures of innovation. The question about this tech is, "What has been the cultural impact of this tech on the societies in Europe and Asia where it has been utilized for quite some time?" All relevant information currently available on this little thing called the "internet."

[tominnyc]

02:59 PM on 08/03/2010

oo u sure are Sassy!

histrionic hen LOL you are so savant

this little thing LOL you are funny

[netzwerg]

12:47 PM on 08/03/2010

Translation: AT&T, Verizon will turn your money into their money.

[GQB]

01:30 PM on 08/03/2010

The question is, will this enable merchants to have an option other than the big credit card companies? My understanding is that this is a move by the telcos to get a piece of that market.
It could actually represent real competition against the credit card behemoths.
The only way they get merchants to install the Point Of Sail devices would be to offer them a savings over the CC companies, which wouldn't be hard. Merchants get really screwed by Visa MC, et al.

[greengoodsguide]

09:50 AM on 08/04/2010

Well, there is an alternative. It's called CASH. Unfortunately the powers and corporations that be are trying to phase it out completely since it's harder to control.

[maymay2]

12:14 PM on 08/03/2010

Make $pending more fun.
Let's get into another round of credit meltdown.
Scary!