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Mobile security concerns continue to hold back mobile payments

Rebecca | April 15, 2013

Smartphone and tablet banking has been suffering from the same worries from consumers.

Despite the fact that smartphone payments and banking services are being used by a growing number of people, mobile security concerns are keeping the rate of adoption at a notably lower level than its full potential.

This, according to the most recent report issued by the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

The report was issued by the bureau in its partnership with Viggle and with InMobi. They discovered that while smartphones and tablets are being used increasingly by consumers who are managing their money online, its adoption would be greater if certain barriers did not remain in the way. Among consumers, 58 percent regularly use the app from their bank, while 50 percent use the optimized website. That said, there remain a large number of individuals who hesitate to use these services due to mobile security concerns.

Mobile security has not yet proven itself to many of the potential users who have yet to be swayed.

According to the vice president and general manager for the Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), Anna Bager, discussed the situation studied in the research when she said “Clearly, mobile users are leaning into their devices for personal finance assistance wherever and whenever they happen to have a need.”

However, Bager also pointed out that consumers are still worried over mobile security issues with this type of services, even though they are using them more than they have before. She explained that “Most financial apps already contain rock-solid security, but consumers seem not to be as plugged into that fact, and that knowledge gap can make all the difference in driving further usage and adoption.”

Bager said that mobile security is an area where financial services marketers should be placing a significant amount of their focus in the campaigns that they are planning. The supported this belief, as 52 percent of its participants said that they would require a concrete guarantee, even in the case that the device should be lost, before they would use a smartphone for payments and banking for the first time, or before they would increase their use for these activities.

Mobile payments pilot launched by LevelUp

Rebecca | April 13, 2013

The test run is being launched at college campuses in partnership with Chartwells.

LevelUp, a mobile payments startup, has just announced that it is taking an important step forward in the smartphone based transaction environment by running a trial of its service among the demographic that is most likely to carry compatible devices.

It is starting this pilot project on college campuses, as students of this age are highly likely to carry smartphones.

This mobile payments test is being conducted in partnership with Chartwells Higher Education Dining Services, a company that supplies food to colleges across the United States. Throughout this trial of the smartphone transaction service, certain colleges will allow LevelUp to be used to pay for meals at the dining halls.

At the moment, the mobile payments trial includes Northeastern University (Boston) and Buffalo State (New York).

According to Chartwells, it agreed to take part in the LevelUp pilot project at the two colleges because it believes that mobile payments will help to make the ordering process at mealtime both faster and more convenient. The vice president of marketing and creative services at Chartwells, Patti Girardi, explained that “Chartwells chose to pilot the new payment system at Buffalo State and Northeastern because we thought it was a perfect fit for our partners.”

Girardi went on to explain that LevelUp was a strong match for Chartwells because it is also capable of offering the company analytics about the purchases that are being made, the visits that are made to the sites, as well as the return visits. This data could be highly beneficial in determining precisely which limited time offers and promotions have been successful among students, and when sales fluctuations are occurring at retail locations. The information could be applied to better understand the purchasing behaviors of the students that they serve.

To use the mobile payments service, the student will need to have downloaded the LevelUp app. It functions in the same way at the dining halls in the college as it does at other merchants who accept these transactions. A payment card is linked by the student to a personal QR code, which is then rendered on the app. The point of sale is equipped with a scanner that can scan the code in order to complete the transaction.