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Visa, Samsung Team Up on Mobile Payments
Visa and Samsung today announced an alliance aimed at accelerating global mobile payments.
The deal, which combines Visa's payment expertise and Samsung's mobile technology, will allow financial institutions to use the Visa Mobile Provisioning Service to securely download payment account information to NFC-enabled Samsung devices.
Additionally, the Visa payWave applet will be loaded onto Samsung devices featuring Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, turning the smartphones into contactless payment options.
"Samsung devices enabled with Visa payment functionality will no doubt be a powerful product offering — especially in markets where paying with a mobile device is becoming commonplace," Jim McCarthy, Visa's global head of product, said in a statement. "However, the key to making mobile payments broadly available all over the world is to offer financial institutions a secure way to provision millions of smartphones with payment account information ... and that is exactly what Visa and Samsung are ready to deliver."
The two companies have worked on mobile payments before. They partnered in May 2012 for a limited-edition Galaxy S III smartphone for athletes and trialists competing in the summer's Olympic games. The specialized phones came with Visa's payWave technology for users to wave their device at the register to check out at participating London retailers.
T.G.I. Friday’s Lets Customers Pay With iPhone, Android
On your next visit to T.G.I. Friday's for dinner and drinks, you won't have to bother reaching for your wallet. Instead, you can pay your tab with your iPhone or Android device.
The restaurant chain released a new application for iPhone and Android that lets customers start a tab, keep track of their bill, and pay it right from their phone. Currently, 350 of the chain's 600 locations nationwide are now accepting the new mobile payment method. Users can download the app now from the Apple App Store or Google Play.
"This new app puts the Friday experience at guests' fingertips – whether they're looking for the closest Friday's to celebrate and indulge or if they want to pay their bar tab quickly," Ricky Richardson, chief operating officer at T.G.I. Friday's, said in a statement.
The app's payment functionality is powered by a platform called Tabbedout, which launched earlier this year at SXSW in Austin, Texas. The app automatically integrates with Friday's point of sale software, allowing customers to pay their bill without the need for additional hardware.
Paying with the app seems fairly straightforward. When a user opens a tab within the app, they are presented with a five-digit code to show their server. The serer then enters the code on the restaurant's point-of-sale system, and then the order proceeds just like usual.
PayPal Rolls Out In-Store Payment to Home Depot Locations Nationwide
After a six-week test program, PayPal is rolling out an in-store payment system to Home Depots throughout the country. Within the next two weeks, almost every one of Home Depot's 2,000 U.S. locations will be equipped to accept payment through a PayPal card or a mobile phone and PIN number combination.
"The Home Depot integration is a great milestone for us, proof that we're making our vision for the future of shopping a reality, but it's only the beginning," PayPal vice president of retail and prepaid products Don Kingsborough said in a blog post. "We're going to continue re-imagining money to make it work better for our retail partners and their valued customers–stay tuned for more exciting innovations to come."
At the beginning of January, PayPal began testing the point-of-sale system at five Home Depots. On Monday, it began to roll out the platform to stores in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Florida, and the North Plains. On March 2, it will expand to West Coast cities, the greater New York area, and Boston, New Jersey, and Philadelphia. The following week, it will launch in the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, the Southeast, Chicago, and St. Louis.
Visa Paves the Way for PayWave Mobile Payments
Visa said Monday that it had signed partnerships that will allow consumers to make purchases via an electronic version of their Visa card that's stored in their phone, likely this year.
Visa said that it had signed a deal with Oberthur Technologies to bring its payWave technology to mobile phones, allowing consumers to pay for goods, services, and even mass transit via a phone equipped with Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. However, Visa will be required to approve individual devices for its payment app, providing an additional factor for consumers to consider when selecting a new phone.
Visa said, however, that the one of the deals it struck was with Intel, which unveiled its own smartphone chip roadmap at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday evening, local time. Intel's existing "Medfield"-based Atom smartphone platform, which Intel unveiled at the Consumer Electronic Show in January, will be in phones from Lenovo and in an offering from Orange. That doesn't necessarily mean that both phones will work with Visa, a Visa executive said. That will be up to the carrier.
"I think what they do is show Visa's global leadership in the mobile payment space, and if you look at the three announcements, the one with Intel, for example, we're going to work with them on a number of global commerce solutions," said Brad Greene, a senior business leader of strategic partnerships and business development at Visa.
Verizon Wireless to Charge $2 for One-Time Online, Phone Payments
Do you pay your Verizon cell phone bill online or by phone? You might want to look into other options, because starting Jan. 15, those methods of payment will include a $2 fee.
As reported by Droid Life, Verizon will impose a $2 "convenience fee" for one-time online and phone payments, starting next month. The move is intended to "balance the support costs" associated with those payment options, Verizon said in documentation posted by the blog.
Users can avoid the fees by signing up for Auto Pay, which makes automatic monthly payments via a major credit or debit card on the same day every month, or when your account reaches a specific dollar amount. With Verizon, the minimum payment is $15 and the max is $250.
Other ways to avoid the $2 fee include: using an electronic check, which will pull the funds directly from your bank account; paying online via your bank's bill pay site; going to a Verizon Store; using a Verizon gift, rebate, or friends and family referral card; or mailing a paper check.
Verizon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
PayPal Sues Google for Stealing Mobile Payment Secrets
PayPal has sued Google and two of its top execs, both former PayPal employees, for stealing trade secrets that helped the search company break into the multi-billion dollar mobile payments industry.
Hours after Stephanie Tilenius, Google's VP of Commerce, and Osama Bedier, VP of Payments, announced Google Wallet, a groundbreaking initiative to make mobile payments commercial, PayPal filed a 28-page lawsuit in California accusing Google and the two employees for misappropriating information and actively poaching other PayPal employees.
Tilenius joined Google in October 2009 as VP of Commerce after serving in various leadership roles at PayPal and eBay since 2001. Bedier jumped from PayPal's VP of Platform, Mobile, and New Ventures to become Google's VP of Payments in January 2010.