We’re about to turn into a country of mobile payment lovers, apparently. With the arrival of Apple Pay into the UK, people are able to pay using “mobile money” on smartphones and smartwatches. Despite the optimism about mobile payments in the media, there is still questions about whether people will actually use mobile money. I mean, are you prepared to pay with your watch?
According to Wikipedia, “Mobile payment, also referred to as mobile money, mobile money transfer, and mobile wallet generally refer to payment services operated under financial regulation and performed from or via a mobile device.”
Pretty simple and it has been around for a while. Barclays bank customers will probably be aware of the Pingit application, which lets you send money to friends using your mobile phone. The app was great if you had a friend bugging you to pay back the £50 he spotted you when you ran out of money on a night out.
Not so great, though, when you made the mistake of dialling a wrong number. Pingit led to my “most expensive miss-dial” when I accidentally “pinged” £75 to an ex-girlfriend (moral of the story – always delete your exes phone numbers!)
The most interesting information comes out of a survey carried out by Deloitte, which found that the mobile payment “revolution” will take off quicker in the UK than in the US. Ed Marsden, Deloitte’s UK lead telecommunications partner commented, “We expect that usage of contactless mobile payments could surge, and, within twelve months, paying for a flat white with a phone will become as familiar as contactless card payments.”
His comments are backed up by the statistics, which suggest that 34% of 18-34 year-olds want to use the technology, which is unsurprising as they are the most “tech-savvy” demographic. However, what is more surprising is that 20% of 55-75 year-olds are happy to use mobile payments, the demographic you would imagine to be much more suspicious of the new technology.
And, even with all of the benefits, there is a lot to be suspicious of. As we reported last week, there are already fears over secutry on smartwatches – with the feeling that manufacturers have sacraficed security for convinience.
For example, if you accidentally install a virus which let them take over your watch (it’s been known to happen) someone could easily your phone to buy themselves a nice 4K TV. Or if someone steals your phone (that’s been known to happen too!) they could take it into the nearest shop and buy themselves a new Xbox. What about if you accidentally held your watch at the wrong angle when you were waiting to get served and paid for someone else’s shopping (OK, this ones very unlikely.)
But it does set the question that we all need to ask ourselves – are we prepared to pay with our watch?
The answer for me is probably the same as it was on my mobile. Which was “no, not a chance.” Then I got hold of Pingit and started sending money to my mates all of the time, just because I could! Then my ex-girlfriend made £75 from me and I went back to my original analysis…
…for all of 5 minutes! Today I still have Pingit on my mobile and I’m waiting to get a smartwatch so I can put a mobile payment app on that too! Perhaps I’ll put it on the upcoming smartwatch from Casio!
And I think I’m safe, as long as I don’t lose my phone, or install a virus… or accidentally pay an exorbitant amount of money into an ex-girlfriends account again.
But what about you? As the mobile payments revolution appears to be just around the corner, are you prepared to pay with your watch?
