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T-Mobile's 'Mobile Money' blends prepaid Visa cards and no-fee checking features
T-Mobile's latest service seems to fit its 'UnCarrier' agenda perfectly, since it has little connection to wireless and doesn't actually require users to have the company's phone service. Called Mobile Money, the personal finance product combines a smartphone app (iOS or Android) with a branded prepaid Visa card. Without paying a single fee, T-Mobile wireless customers can deposit checks into their Mobile Money account by taking a picture of them with their smartphone, withdraw money from 42,000 in-network ATMs and reload the cards with cash at T-Mobile stores (non-T-Mobile customers would pay additional fees). There are also no maintenance fees, minimum balances or activation fees. While many already have free checking accounts with their bank or credit union that offer similar features, this is aimed at people who for various reasons can't get a traditional checking account, and rely instead on check-cashing or payday loan services that charge high fees. It's very similar to the service Boost Mobile launched last spring with a similar focus, and T-Mobile Chief Marketing Officer Mike Sievert says households currently using check cashers can save up to $1,500 per year in fees. What it isn't however, is a mobile payment service like Isis Mobile Wallet, which it has no connection to. Interested customers can sign up now online or in T-Mobile stores, and next month it will expand to include Safeway locations.
Nokia's extreme dieting continues as it kills off Nokia Money
If you thought Nokia had finished its program of slimming down, think again. The axe is being wielded on Nokia Money as the company seeks to reinvent itself as a lean'n'mean mobile player. The mobile payments and cash management service was launched in India late last year, but both complex financial regulations and the fact it's outside of Nokia's core business prompted its early closure. Instead, it'll concentrate its efforts on its smartphones designed for emerging markets like the Asha: with the aim of connecting the "next billion" people to the internet.
Visa aims at developing countries with new international prepaid mobile payment service
Shortly after announcing its new digital wallet service V.me for developed markets, Visa also made a presence at Mobile Asia Congress in Hong Kong to promote its new prepaid mobile money platform aimed at the under-banked and the unbanked consumers. By utilizing its recently-acquired Fundamo (which currently has more than 10 million mobile payment subscribers), Visa aims to leverage on the vast number of mobile phone users in developing countries -- many of whom are already using local but carrier-bound mobile payment systems -- in order to offer a globally interoperable mobile payment network. This overlaying platform is said to be more secure, much cheaper and more convenient than the likes of Western Union, especially when you can simply make mobile-to-mobile payments when sending money across countries. Nigeria and Uganda will be the first nations to get a taste of this early next year courtesy of telecommunications provider MTN Group, and eventually more developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America will join the list. Full press release after the break. %Gallery-139688%
Eric Schmidt lays out three priorities for Google: LTE, mobile money, inexpensive smartphones
He didn't exactly go on at length about them, but Google CEO Eric Schmidt has laid out three clear priorities for the company in a brief guest article for the Harvard Business Review -- and, not surprisingly, they're "all about mobile." Those include focusing on "developing the underlying fast networks," or what Schmidt notes is "generally called LTE," pushing the development of NFC-based "mobile money" and, last but not least, increasing the availability of inexpensive smartphones in the poorest parts of the world. On that latter point, Schmidt seems to be especially optimistic, saying that he envisions "literally a billion people getting inexpensive, browser-based touchscreen phones over the next few years." Hit up the source link below to read Schmidt's take on the "big mobile revolution" for yourself.
