Tag: mobile wallet

Mobile wallet investment into LoopPay by Visa

The credit card giant has now backed the smartphone payment solution that is accepted at most POS terminals.

It has now been announced that Visa is investing into LoopPay, which is a mobile wallet app that is designed to provide consumers and retailers with a mobile payment solution that is already accepted at a majority of point of sale terminals among retailers.

The LoopPay mobile app has been created to allow people to make mobile payments with smartphones.

This eliminates the need for those consumers to have to bring their plastic credit cards with them because they can use the mobile wallet within their device to pay with those cards in a digital manner, instead. The app uses a traditional setup for a smartphone based payments service, and provides the consumer with a small dongle that plugs into the device in order to allow users to be able to swipe their virtual cards when they reach the cash register to pay for their products at a retailer’s checkout counter.

In this way, the LoopPay mobile wallet doesn’t require any changes to be made to the retailer POS terminals.

Mobile Wallet - Visa InvestmentTo work with the LoopPay mobile payments software, retailers can simply continue to use the point of sale terminals that they already have. This helps to be able to span the gap that is currently present in the majority of smartphone based wallet services in the United States retail market.

Typically, in order for retailers to be able to receive mobile payments, they would have to change their terminals in order to accept some specific form of technology. At the same time, those that already accept certain types of smartphone friendly tech, such as NFC technology based readers, are compatible with only a small percentage of devices that are currently used by consumers.

As this service allows retailers to keep their systems and simply provides consumers with a dongle to use, this overcomes the compatibility challenges that have existed among many mobile wallet services until now. In this, Visa has already announced that it is upgrading its VisaCheckout program. Therefore, their investment into LoopPay will give the company the opportunity to make an even larger impact on the smartphone payments sector.

Mobile wallet likely in the iPhone 6

Apple appears to be making considerable steps toward smartphone based payments.

Patents, reports, and rumors are coming together to provide a continually increasing body of evident that suggests that the iPhone 6, which is expected to be released this fall, will include a mobile wallet to allow owners to be able to use their smartphones to pay for purchases.

This will make Apple a rather late entrant into the mobile payments market space.

Despite this fact, a mobile wallet in an i-device is likely to have a massive impact on the small but growing trend. Many people believe that this is the addition required to bring mobile payments into the mainstream. This may also help to encourage increased use of struggling services such as Isis and Google Wallet.

More evidence of a possible iPhone 6 mobile wallet was generated by Apple’s talks with Visa.

iphone - mobile walletReports have now been published that have indicated that Apple has entered into discussions with Visa as well as a number of other credit card companies regarding the creation of mobile payments partnerships.

If the electronics giant does go ahead with this technology, it would mean that users of its smartphones would be able to use their devices to be able to complete mobile transactions. Therefore, even when purchasing physical goods in brick and mortar retail stores, they will still be able to pay at the checkout counter using the device instead of a credit card.

At the same time a digital wallet would also give the upcoming iPhone’s users the opportunity to use that same type of transaction to pay for products that they purchase online and in apps. This would convert the smartphone into a direct connection to credit card companies for making payments. This could help consumers and retailers, alike, in being able to save money by avoiding the third party transaction processing fees that are paid in traditional credit card based purchases.

The main focus for Apple mobile wallets would be on security, as the company has reportedly added a secure hardware element to their upcoming devices, though it is unknown whether that will be based upon NFC technology or another option altogether.