Slashdot Mirror
Canada Telecoms Launch Mobile Payment Service
GregDz11 writes to inform us that Canada's three main wireless companies will be launching a service that allows customers to send, request, and receive money via their mobile phones. "The service, called Zoompass, will be managed by Enstream, a joint venture the three carriers first established in 2005, when it was called Wireless Payment Services, to investigate the potential of mobile commerce. [...] Money can be drawn from an account the user sets up or from their credit card. Each withdrawal will cost 50 cents from the account, or 3.5 per cent of the transaction if from a credit card. (As a result, sending dollar amounts under $15 are actually cheaper to do using a credit card.)"
some day I'm going to try to explain to my grandkids about how we carried around computers that needed their own bags, that weighed 'pounds!' and they'll laugh at something so absurd.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
possible early prototype?
Oh, I guess not, the limit in the article is only $1,000 not 10 Million Yen...
"MIT betrayed all of its basic principles."
...what could possibly go wrong?
Caveat Utilitor
Why would you pay $.50 to use this when transactions on credit cards and (some) debit cards are free?
...I can get hosed for random charges more conveniently. And pay 50 cents to do so!
0 = 1 + e^(Alt something)
If they're hoping to take over a significant share of transactions between private individuals (aka "consumers"), they're in for a rude shock. The service is grossly overpriced. Cash is free and most people get a certain number of free cheques / free withdrawls on their bank plans. Ten cents a transaction *might* be cheap enough
-- "At Microsoft, quality is job 1.1" -- PC Magazine, Nov. 1994
I'm having trouble thinking of an organization I trust less than Canada's telecoms companies to handle my money.
Has Bell figured out how to deal with incorrect direct payment transactions? When it happened to me, I had to have my bank block all transactions originated from Bell. Bell couldn't figure out how to identify the account making the bad transactions on their own--they actually needed the "payment refused" bounces from the bank. (They've got check-digits on account numbers now, but can they fix a problem from their end yet?)
A friend on Roger's discovered his phone had been cloned. The Roger's people thought that there was nothing odd about his phone being used in Toronto and in south Florida at the very same time. (The small claims judge did think that was odd.)
FTA:
My wallet has been mobile for years already...
Myself I was really under the impression this was available everywhere. Have been developing something to use this for a while now : https://www.tunz.com/ Operates as a Belgian bank There is more in other EU countries. Maybe should have reported this about two years back, my offence, not an active poster, only a slashdot reader. Many apologies.
They've done studies with scans of a human's brain when they spend significant amounts of cash. When you use physical currency, it actually brain activity similar to pain. When you use credit cards, it's registered, but much less. When you make a waving motion, it's a barely noticeable response at all.
On top of that, charging 50 cents per transaction? This is more of an opt-in stupid tax.
1. They are too greedy and don't realise that only very few people would use the service at this rates, which effectively ruins the economy of scale calculations.
2. You can't limit the debt you get, which increases the loss in cases of fraud. This should work like pre paid cards where loss is limited.
It takes me for ever to just get their customer service to figure out my iPhone plan, and to walk me through the details of other existing plans so I can make an informed decision, and they expect me to trust them with upto $1000 of my money? And I can only imagine how much more their customer service will suck after we include the complication of handling live money via bank accounts and credit cards, Not to mention that this is certainly not a free service, and Canadian providers have been widely slammed by Canadian consumers for having exorbitantly priced plans to begin with. While this is a cool idea, it will take a LOT of convincing to get decently savvy customers like myself to trust what they say anymore. Maybe my 6 GB plan will include this feature!
How come, when I was in Japan, I could use such a system without any fees? I know, it didn't work exactly the same way but it offered the same advantages and fast payment.
So Canada only realizes now that such a service makes sense? No wonder it has slipped from a near the top position in terms of technology penetration to near bottom.
Companies like Nortel Networks, Corel and others are shells of their former glory!
Even 3rd world countries like Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and many others have had such a service for years!
To make matters worse, the service is still riddled with restrictions.
Canadians...wake up!
North America is somewhat backwards in terms of cell phone capabilities and uses. Apparently too many people here see them as something you use to talk to people on.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
The pricing for this is ridiculous...and I don't know if I'd want to trust Telus or Rogers with anyone more than they already have. By itself, I don't think this would work at all, but I'm totally pumped for the future. This just is one step closer to FINALLY getting NFC (near field contact) chips into phones. I can't believe that Japan and Korea have had NFC chips for years, and we've JUST started down the same path...
You'll find that regularly, something that's commonplace elsewhere is reported as new on /. when it gets to North America, the United States in particular. Trust me, this is new in Canada.
Not that I'm going to use this service in any way, shape, or form.
Canada: The US's more awesome sibling.
I fail to see how this service is actually useful, though. We've widespread POS interac terminals. We don't really have a NEED for this. Even for transfers between individuals, this service pales in comparison to other methods.
Canada: The US's more awesome sibling.
I honestly hate the thought of paying money to spend money - surely it costs less to maintain a bank of computers then it costs to count and sort notes and coins. So many things have fee's for "digital" transactions these days - when in truth you're saving them a fortune (eg: cinema, $1 fee to buy and print your own ticket, 1: You're saving them staff at the counter, 2: You're saving them actual costs of printing the ticket. - and don't start with the "oh credit card fee" or "online processing costs money" cos surely if I were to pay with my credit card at the counter they'd cop the same fee)
Lacking from the summary:
http://www.zoompass.com/
From the sounds of it you are an American.
Canadian's don't carry cash. Period. At least not Canadians under 30. This is one area in which the US and Canada are vastly different... cash is now hardly used for any transactions in Canada anymore, at all.
This service is actually very well priced because it is competing with E Interac email money transfers in Canada (EMT). Most banks charge you $1.50 to send an EMT if it is not covered by your banking plan. 50 cents is much less.
I can tell you right now, this service is going to be immensely popular.
Compared to cash:
This is as bad an idea (for the consumer, that is) as debit cards.
I'm a Programmer. That's one level above Software Engineer and one level below Engineer.
"Mobile services" like this are fundamentally wrongheaded. If someone wants to build a payment service, that's great, but they should do it over the Internet and make sure it's usable from any Internet-connected device, mobile or otherwise. My mobile carrier's job should be to move the damn packets and stay out of the way of anything at the application layer.
Your buddy who you owe $20 for the beer and pizza run does not take Interac or credit cards. That is the target market for this.
Local banks are where it's at. My local bank covers all atm fees. I can use it anywhere in the world at atms that take Pulse/Star; the only catch is, I have to initially pay for it, but once the transaction clears, they refund the atm fees. Checking is free, unless I go negative, of course. But being able to overdraft in emergencies is useful.
Mobile Money is hugely popular in Africa, where the banking system is archaic, expensive and inflexible, but everybody has a mobile phone. The biggest success story so far is called M-Pesa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-Pesa in Kenya. But more and more providers offer these services. A company called Zain http://www.zain.com/ now offers international mobile transfers within their network. Glad we are exporting some experience.
Hey guys,
This is not new, we have been doing this Africa for a while now.
Credit cards and debit cards have not been as widespread ... while mobile phones are.
To satisfy the security kremlins, these where initially done on SIM Cards, but now USSD etc are more common.
R
You can already just email your money in Canada. Anyone use this service? http://www.interac.ca/consumers/productsandservices_ol_emt.php
CrazyLegs
"Pork!!" said the Fish, and we all laughed.
This was already done in Africa, there was even a documentary about it on TV.
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=160576
http://whiteafrican.com/2008/09/26/if-it-works-in-africa-it-will-work-anywhere/
http://ghanabusinessnews.com/2009/04/15/electronic-payment-another-use-of-mobile-phone-technology/
If I remember correctly, users just had to set a different service center number (the number that receives the SMS messages) and send a sms with a text like *pin*100 to the phone number that's supposed to receive the money and that person would receive 100 in the currency of that country. Both parties would receive an SMS back letting them know that the money was sent / that they received the payment.
The documentary was showing lots of happy truckers who were no longer worried of going tens of miles through desert to deliver stuff and return with loads of money on them, they just delivered the cargo and ask the other person to sms them the payment instantly.
"Canadian's don't carry cash. Period. At least not Canadians under 30. This is one area in which the US and Canada are vastly different... cash is now hardly used for any transactions in Canada anymore, at all."
That's horseshit. Maybe the tiny fragment of the population that you deal with doesn't carry cash, but cash is alive and well from my vantage point. Go into any food court in a shopping mall to see cash in action over many transactions.
Besides, I can tell you one thing that negates your whole claim. Lots of Canadians under 30 smoke pot, and I'm damn certain they aren't buying it with interac withdrawals.
Now if you said, "Canadians use debit a lot" I would have agreed. But you said, "Canadian's don't carry cash. Period. At least not Canadians under 30."
"So Canada only realizes now that such a service makes sense? No wonder it has slipped from a near the top position in terms of technology penetration to near bottom...Canadians...wake up!"
Oh yeah, let's add yet another way in which you can more easily blow your money. Now you can instantly send your buddy-on-a-beer-run $20 you didn't want to spend for a bottle of liquor you didn't intend to drink, all without leaving the poker table.
What a great idea. Canadians should totally get behind this initiative.
Were people having such a hard time spending their cash that this service is actually warranted?