Mobile Payments Archives - Page 2 of 8

The Contactless Sticker as a Mobile Wallet Trojan Horse

By Jim Bruene Posted on July 19, 2013
Categories: Contactless payments, Credit/Debit Cards, Discover Card, Mobile Payments

I’ve had Discover’s Zip contactless sticker pasted to the back of my iPhone for a few years. Although I don’t run across very many places to use it in Seattle, I enjoy the user experience when it works. It’s not a huge time saver, but it’s easier to wave my phone than dig the right card out of my “analog wallet.” And it usually is interesting to the clerk, since “paying by phone” is still a novelty.

Whether Discover has benefited from issuing me a sticker is debatable. Stickers are issued only by request (at least on my account). Discover not only had to pay an extra $3 or $4 for the sticker (note 1), but also paid a customer service rep to answer the phone and take my request. Assuming they incurred an admin cost of $7 to $10 to process and mail the sticker would make the total cost to Discover $10 to $15. Therefore, my measly $300 in incremental spending hasn’t yet given them a positive return. But if more terminals were around, I’d have put thousands on it, and they’d be ecstatic.

The reason I’m writing about stickers again, is that my Moven card and sticker package arrived last week (see pictures below; previous post; note 2). And I thought how much more impressive the startup’s card mailer looked with the Moven sticker (and supporting mobile banking graphics) than the typical bank card mailer (Simple excluded, of course).

I know the extra $3 to $5 it would cost to toss a sticker into the card mailer is a huge expense. But I think the potential benefits makes it worth considering, at least for a portion of your customer base. (And if you add the sticker as part of a premium package, you might even convince customers to pay for it.)

Financial institution benefits:

Increased POS transactions: Move your card to the top of wallet instantly when users are at a working, contactless terminal.
Increased online transactions: If you print the card number, expiry date, and security code on the sticker, cardholders would turn to your card more often when arriving at check-out at ecommerce sites. It also would work for mobile commerce, although not as well since users would have to flip the phone around to read the numbers.
Increased loyalty/referrals: Once that sticker is placed on a phone, it’s a constant reminder of your bank and card. It also makes it easy to show off to a friend.
1st gen mobile wallet: The sticker, combined with your mobile banking app and/or SMS alerts, provides a fairly solid “mobile wallet experience” to compete with Google and others.
Seamless transition to NFC (or whatever): When the day arrives that the contactless capability is embedded in most handsets (yeah, Apple, we are looking at you), you simply tell customers to pull off the sticker and keep on waving that phone at the terminal.
Competitive advantage: You differentiate yourself and earn referrals from a certain group of customers who are impressed with tech innovations.

Bottom line: Increasing costs with a contactless sticker is not for everyone. But if you are looking for a tangible point of differentiation that also builds your tech-cred, this is one possible solution. Moven, for one, is banking on it.

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Moven outside envelope (13 July 2013)
Note: I know this is good for security reasons, but I was expecting something a little snazzier. Luckily, the inside card carrier was the best I’ve ever seen (see below).

Moven card carrier
Note: Sticker is on left, plastic on right

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Notes:
1. I’ve seen a wide range of prices quoted for contactless stickers, but I believe the relevant range for most issuers is $3 to $7 each, depending on quantity.
2. I can’t report on actual Moven account transactions because I haven’t verified the trial deposits. While this is a clever and relatively simple authentication technique, it does require users to log in to another bank account days later, so it is easy to neglect. Moven sent me a reminder two days after my application, but that was two weeks ago. Clearly, they will have to follow up with procrastinators like me again.
3. For more info on fee-based banking services, our Online Banking Report on fee-based online services (subscription, May 2011). For more info on the “near bank” or “meta bank” phenomena see our report on Truly Virtual Banks (subscription, Oct 2011).

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First Look: Google Wallet "Pay by Gmail" (and the Pain of Authentication)

By Jim Bruene Posted on May 22, 2013
Categories: Alt Payments, Google, Mobile Payments, P2P Payments

As you probably already know, last week Google launched P2P payments via Gmail (and through the Google Wallet mobile/online interface). Once authenticated, users simply “attach” funds to an email message (see inset).

Bank transfers (e.g., ACH) are free while card-based payments will cost senders 2.9% of the amount, with a $0.30 minimum. However, all transactions are free for an unspecified time during the launch period.

With an estimated 400 to 500 million global Gmail users, the service has the potential to become an important method of sending money (it’s only available to U.S. users at this point). However, like all U.S.-based P2P services, it’s easy to send money, but not always so easy to receive it.

In my first test, I was able to claim the funds relatively easily with my four-year-old Google Wallet account. There was a short authentication process with a login, name, address, birth date and last four digits of my Social Security Number (SSN). After claiming the funds, I was then able to send money out of the system (note 2).

After sending my two cents over to Larry Page, congratulating him on the launch (see screenshots below), I then sent money to my work email account. While it was deceptively simple to send the money, I was unable to claim the money, despite already having an active Google Wallet associated with that email address.

After receiving the email notification, I went through the same authentication process as above. But after logging in and providing my personal info, I was hit with four additional out-of-wallet authentication questions, apparently pulled from public databases (I think NOT my credit bureau due to the errors..see below).

But apparently there was an error in the out-of-wallet Q&A served to me. The first two questions obviously pertained to me, and I answered them correctly, but the final two did not (note 6), so I answered “none of the above.” But Google didn’t believe me, and I was told my answers were “inconsistent” and that I could not be authenticated online.

I was invited to upload three pieces of documentation since I failed the Q&A (all required):

Picture ID (e.g., drivers license)
Proof of address (e.g., utility bill)
Social Security card

Unfortunately, I haven’t laid eyes on my Social Security card for several decades and haven’t a clue where it is. And in 18 years of testing online account opening, no one has ever asked for it. So I’m stuck. Had someone sent me a real payment, I would be extremely frustrated, and would have to either ask for a check to be sent, or use PayPal.

Bottom line: This is a brilliant play by Google, taking everyone by surprise. However, P2P payments (in the USA anyway) are still a pain to receive the first time which dampens their viral growth (note 7). I understand the reasons for good authentication, though it still seems like overkill given that I was only claiming a one-cent transfer via a pre-existing and active Google Wallet account (used for more than $400 worth of purchases this year). And especially after I provided the correct name, address, birth date, SSN and two additional out-of-wallet questions.

But I know the folks from Mountain View, Calif., will work the risk-procedure kinks out quickly (there is a reason it’s called “beta”). And if they stick with it (RIP Google Reader), Google should be able to build a critical mass of financially authenticated users, making “gpay” as easy as using PayPal.

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How Gmail Pay works

Step 1: Craft email message and click on the “$” icon at the bottom of the compose screen

Step 2: Attach funds via Wallet balance, bank transfers, or card; then add memo if desired

Step 3: Press send

Step 4: Final chance to review

Final: Confirmation copy is placed in your inbox (note 8)

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Notes:
1. During the beta test, you can become a P2P user only by first receiving funds from an existing user.
2. I have two Google Wallet accounts, one set up in 2009 and the other established in January 2013 when I got a Nexus NFC phone with built-in Wallet support. The credit card associated with both accounts was stolen earlier this year, and I had to add a new card to both wallets before I could use them. This could have triggered additional authentication requirements on the second Wallet account.
3. The payment appears as a “card” within a Gmail. There is no indication in the title of the message that it might contain money (user controls the rest of the email).
4. The transaction fee was waived for my Discover Card-based payment. I assume it would be on other card types, but I didn’t test that.
5. Users have the option to add a memo to the payment (in addition to what’s included in the email message).
6. Ironically, if the recipient was mobile-deposit-enabled, it would be easier the first time to send a high-resolution image of a check that the user could take a picture of and then deposit via mobile banking. Or, for Capital One 360 users, the emailed image could simply be
uploaded directly into their account (see post).
7. Though I suspect the last two questions could have been drawn from online info about my brother, who has a different first name and lives 2,000 miles from me.
8. Yesterday, confirmation emails went to my inbox when I sent a payment. Tonight, I am not seeing that: It’s only showing in my Sent messages.
9. For more info, see our recent Online Banking Report: Digital & Mobile Wallets (published Feb 2013, subscription).

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Feature Friday: Capital One Offers $20 Incentive to Try ShopSavvy Mobile Wallet

By Jim Bruene Posted on March 15, 2013
Categories: Capital One, Credit/Debit Cards, Feature Friday, Mobile Payments

I have been fascinated with mobile wallets for a while (note 4). They’ve been “just a few years out” since the first Finovate (Oct 2007), where multiple mobile banking pioneers laid out their product roadmaps. And now we are starting to see real implementations. Not just Square and Starbucks. But financial institutions are moving forward.

The latest rollout, the Capital One and ShopSavvy deal, was announced last month (press release). Capital One has already partnered with several major card-linked offers providers (and acquired one), but apparently it is still looking to boost its mobile efforts (note 1).

ShopSavvy is a San Francisco-based startup which has built a mobile wallet, shopping and deals apps. It has raised $11 million, two-thirds from Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin.

The company has integrations with a number of online merchants including Walmart, Barnes & Noble, Overstock.com, Target, Best Buy and others (note 2). Those links allow users find online prices, either by scanning a bar code in-store or in-app search, then purchase online with a single slide (see inset).

I got the invite from Capital One Wednesday morning with an eye-catching $20-off offer (see first screenshot below). But this wasn’t like a straightforward card-linked offer where cardholders activate the deal and then buy.

To bank this savings, users had to power through a three-stage process:

1. Sign up for an account at ShopSavvy using the link in the email. It’s a relatively painless process, taking just a minute or two. None of my personal info was prepopulated (see screenshot #3-5 below).

2. Add the app to your mobile phone by locating the ShopSavvy app in the App store, downloading and opening.

3. Activate the ShopSavvy app by entering your username and password and repeating the info you’d entered online to set up your profile.

Altogether, it’s a somewhat convoluted 5- to 6-minute process, but one that is probably acceptable for early adopters. I did have intermittent problems with the app, network errors, crashes and bizarre search results (note 3). But it seems to have stabilized now after the initial usage spike.

Bottom line: Once it started working properly, the ShopSavvy features were impressive. The simple search combined with one-click purchasing would make a nice addition to a bank or card issuer’s mobile app. I’m still a little surprised that Capital One is endorsing a third-party wallet. But by getting its card “top of e-wallet,” the giant issuer boosts charge volume, mobilizes its card-linked offers, and gets a foothold in the wallet space.

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Capital One email to customers offering a $20 statement credit to use the ShopSavvy wallet (12 March 2013)

Landing page at ShopSavvy (link)

Step 1: Join ShopSavvy

Step 2: Add Capital One credit card

Step 3: Locate, download and activate the ShopSavvy mobile wallet app

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Notes:
1. Or perhaps this is more of a straight revenue-play for Capital One, with ShopSavvy paying the card issuer for each new customer.
2. Unfortunately, ShopSavvy’s one-click experience does not extend to Amazon.com, but the app does display Amazon prices and it’s just a few more clicks to buy there.
3. Initially, I tried the app with a few barcodes I found at home and it worked, but only on the media stuff. Since I didn’t want to buy anything I already owned, I went to the last remaining bookstore in northeast Seattle and gave it a try. Unfortunately, this store covers the regular barcode with its own, which are not indexed in the ShopSavvy database. But when I tried it again last night, the search function was working so I was able to easily find a DVD set and buy it from Target.com for a competitive price (even before the $20 statement credit).
4. For mo
re info on mobile wallets, see our most recent Online Banking Report: Mobile & Cloud Wallets (Feb 2013, subscription)

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First Financial, US Bank Launch First Photo Billpay Services

By Jim Bruene Posted on March 7, 2013
Categories: Best of the Web, Bill payment, Mitek, Mobile Banking, Mobile Payments

I started this post Monday, before I knew US Bank would be making headlines today as the first “major” bank with photo billpay. I got that news last night, when I updated my US Bank iPhone app (see inset).

But First Financial Bank (Abilene, TX; $3.7 billion deposits) actually beat US Bank ($235 billion) to market by more than a month with its 22 Jan 2013 launch (press release; YouTube video). The bank said it had 12,000 bill uploads during the first 10-days of availability.

Both services use the Mitek engine to read the image and handle the OCR work. But First Financial also uses Allied Payment Network to process images that don’t get properly digitized on the first pass and Malauzai Software for app development.

Like remote check deposit, the system will improve over time as it learns the nuances of the thousands of billing statements fed into the front end. But today, there is still work to be done on the minority of statements that don’t read correctly (see note 1).

First Financial features the new service front and center on its homepage (see first screenshot below) with a clever:

Tell your bills to say, “Cheese.”

US Bank has no mention of it on the front page (nor in site search), but if you navigate to its mobile banking page, you can’t miss it (third screenshot below).

Bottom line: I’m not sure how many people will ultimately use photo billpay (though First Financial seems to be off to a good start). It’s an interim technology until we can convert the country to ebills.

But since that may be a decade from now, using your smartphone to snap-and-pay is the best answer for now. So, we are bestowing our first OBR Best of the Web of 2013 to First Financial for raising the bar in remote delivery (notes 2, 3). And an honorable mention to US Bank for getting it out to a broader market.

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First Financial features its new photo billpay on its homepage (6 Mar 2013)

First Financial landing page (link)

US Bank’s mobile page features photo billpay prominently (link)

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Notes:
1. Just today, the Chase ATM couldn’t read the amount on a computer-generated check we fed into its deposit slot. So we had to manually add.
2. This Best of the Web goes to First Financial since it was first. Mitek already won when it introduced the technology in 2010 (see our Online Banking Report on Paperless Banking (subscription).
3. Since 1997, our Online Banking Report has periodically given OBR Best of the Web awards to companies that pioneer new online- or mobile-banking features. It is not an endorsement of the company or product, just recognition for what we believe is an important industry development. In total, 89 companies have won the award. This is the first for First Financial. Recent winners are profiled in the Netbanker archives.

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PayPal’s “Plastic Wallet” May be a Popular NFC Work-Around Model for Next Few Years

By Jim Bruene Posted on February 25, 2013
Categories: Discover Card, Mobile Payments, PayPal

PayPal has been working on enabling in-store payments for much of its corporate life. It launched a debit card in January 2001, less than 18 months after the company launched. The card was used to tap funds held in PayPal accounts.

Fast-forward 12 years. We are now entering the era of the digital wallet which features the ability to store multiple payment cards that can be changed manually or automatically at the point of sale. PayPal is well positioned here, since its core product has offered that capability for a dozen years.

It’s easy to see how PayPal becomes a major, if not dominant, mobile-payments player. But it’s still a few years before NFC (or whichever) handsets and POS terminals become mainstream (see our latest report for more info, note 1).

So what can the company do now to make more inroads at the point-of-sale?
Plenty, it turns out:

PayPal Anywhere is a plastic debit card attached to an individual’s PayPal account. But unlike the company’s previous debit card, this one can facilitate payment from any bank account, debit card or credit card linked to the user’s PayPal account. Users can even change the routing of the charge later that same day.
Partnership with NCR: In an announcement made at January’s national retail tradeshow, PayPal will be made available to more than a million locations using NCR’s POS system.
Marketing at the point-of-sale: Last week, we noticed PayPal brochures at the counter of an LA-area Jamba Juice (see inset).

And, the big one, still in the planning stages:

Partnership with Discover Card: According to an announcement made last August (2012), PayPal will issue a card that can be used at any of Discover’s seven million merchants.

Bottom line: PayPal, Google, Moven(bank), UMB (powered by Dynamics), Wallaby, and others aren’t waiting for NFC. It’s work-around time, at least in the United States. A promising tactic, at least for users, is the “plastic wallet,” a traditional mag-stripe card (MasterCard, Visa or Discover) for point-of-sale use. Then, like PayPal Anywhere, the user routes the transaction to an outside deposit account, or another card, pre-registered in the system (note 2).

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Landing page for PayPal’s plastic wallet “PayPal Anywhere” (23 Feb 2013)

Pitch for in-store payments served after logging out

Landing page after clicking the “start” button above

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Notes:
1. See our Online Banking Report on Digital Wallets (published Feb 2013, subscription).
2. The business model of the plastic wallet is a challenge. It could be workable if all transactions are routed directly to deposit accounts via ACH (aka “decoupled debit”). Also, advertising (Google Wallet) and/or interest charges (PayPal’s Bill Me Later) can prop up the P&L.

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New Online Banking Report Published: Breaking Down the Digital/Mobile Wallet Hype

By Jim Bruene Posted on February 22, 2013
Categories: Credit/Debit Cards, Mobile Payments, Online Banking Report

We now have digital wallets, cloud wallets and mobile wallets. There’s the Google Wallet, PayPal wallet, ISIS, Serve, MCX, V.me, PayPass, Lemon, Pageonce, Wallaby, Passbook, LevelUp (see screenshot below) and 280 mobile payment startups listed on Angel List. NFC is coming, or is it? Why not just use the QR code? Or do we wait until EMV, Oct 2015? Does this make money or just add another layer of costs? Are we having fun yet?

Bottom line: With consumers carrying a powerful computer on their person, the days of the dumb mag-stripe are numbered. No one debates that. But what is a financial institution to do today?

That’s what we set out to answer in our latest report on Digital & Mobile Wallets.

If you are not a major credit-card issuer, you may choose to ignore the issue until the dust settles. That’s a valid strategy, but it won’t help you pick up market share during the upcoming market confusion.

We believe every bank and credit union with a mobile app should dip its toes into the wallet space now with some relatively low- to no-cost positioning moves, while waiting for the tech questions to be answered this year and next.

And if you are a big issuer, you have a very interesting few years in front of you. Do you build or buy? Which of the major wallets, if any, do you throw your marketing support behind? And how do you explain any of this to your shell-shocked customers who just want to pay their tab and get away from the cash register as fast as possible?

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About the report
__________________________________________________________________

Digital & Mobile Wallets (link)
Payments in the smartphone era

Author: Jim Bruene, Editor & Founder

Published: 21 Feb 2013

Length: 36 pages, 10 tables, 12,000 words

Cost: No extra charge to OBR subscribers, US$495 for others (here)

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Report excerpt:

First Trade Union Bank is teasing its LevelUp mobile wallet partnership on its homepage (19 Feb 2013).

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Lemon’s Premium Digital Wallet Carries Monthly Fee

By Jim Bruene Posted on February 8, 2013
Categories: Mobile Payments, Personal Financial Management

I’ve spent a fair amount of time playing with digital wallets during the past few weeks. The one with the most traction, at least measured by download activity, is the Lemon Wallet which has been a top-20 free finance app for some time.

While it’s free, does cool tricks with the mobile camera, and is seemingly liked by users, it’s not a transactive service just yet. Basically, using the mobile camera as a scanner, it digitizes all the bank cards, loyalty cards, IDs and various detritus we haul around on our person or stuff into the back of a desk drawer.

Right now, there aren’t many places willing to accept a copy of your card stored on your smartphone. But if you need your healthcare plan number, driver’s license number, or any of your card numbers, they are all stored in a handy location (you could do the same thing with the iPhone’s notepad too).

Obviously, Lemon has bigger plans than simply being a card-number archive. You don’t score $8 million in venture capital unless you have a path towards a $75+ mil valuation.

The startup’s first step towards revenue generation is its $4.99 per month (or $39.99 annually) premium option. For that, users get a bundle of benefits including:

Card transaction scanning powered by BillGuard,
which downloads transactions to monitor up to 10 cards
(1 account can be tracked in the free version)
Lost wallet service (aka credit card registration) so that if you lose your physical wallet, Lemon will handle getting all your cards replaced
Extra password for more security
Transaction sharing
Export data to CSV (Excel), Evernote, Dropbox or Concur

My take: For power users, the BillGuard integration makes Lemon premium worth the $3.33.mo on an annual plan. One mistaken charge discovered every year covers the cost. But account aggregation is not something consumers are used to paying for, so by simply providing fee-based PFM services, it will take time to get meaningful revenues.

But with a solid base of cards aggregated onto the platform, Lemon can leverage the info in many ways. And as mobile proximity payments become technically feasible, the company is in a good position to be one of the major wallet players (or be acquired by one).

Email upsell for the Lemon premium option (5 Feb 2013)

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Mobile Monday: Square Wallet Enables On-the-Fly Tips & You Can Change Your Mind Later

By Jim Bruene Posted on February 4, 2013
Categories: Mobile Payments, Square

Since much of my week revolves around reading and writing in various coffee shops around Seattle, I make sure to tip the barista so they don’t get annoyed with me using their wifi for an hour or two.

Tipping is very easy when paying with cash. You can easily drop the change in the jar. But with cards it gets trickier. With old-school signature system (i.e. mag stripe), it’s a little more time consuming, adding a tip amount and total, but still easy enough.

But with the move to contactless, no-signature below the floor (e.g. Starbucks) and many EMV transactions, the only way to leave a tip is to dig cash out of your pocket. But that kind of defeats the convenience of contactless.

Maybe since it got it’s start as a POS device for small merchants, Square’s payment app, Wallet, had tipping built into it from the get go. As soon as the your wallet “pay by name” transaction is authorized, a message pops up on the iPhone lock screen, offering the opportunity to tip (see inset above).

Swiping the message brings up the transaction within Square Wallet, where you can choose your tip amount. The merchant can specify tip preferences by dollar amount or as a percentage of the transaction. The coffee shop I visited this morning offered $1, $2 and $3 choices for the tip. Those seem a little on the high side for a business with a $4 average ticket. Unfortunately, there is no way to override the choices and choose a different amount.

The app even allows you to go and edit the tip (see below). I’m not sure how long the “edit window” lasts, but you can certainly change it while you are waiting for your order.

Bottom line: The mobile wallet era will usher in a number of new payment behaviors. Tipping is just the tip of the iceberg.

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Square Wallet tipping function (1 Feb 2013)

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Movenbank Provides a Peek at its User Interface

By Jim Bruene Posted on January 29, 2013
Categories: FinovateEurope 2013, Launches, Mobile Banking, Mobile Payments, Personal Financial Management

Tech startups help define the future in many traditional industries. Amazon in books, Expedia in travel, Tesla in automobiles.

But there’s been less disruption in retail banking than most industries, especially in the U.S. We saw ING Direct take some share in savings accounts, but not enough to really shake up the status quo.

But we have some new players looking to change that and Movenbank is one of the most interesting. The Brett King-founded startup, armed with $2.4 mil in seed funding, is beginning to release more details as it prepares for its launch at our FinovateEurope event in two weeks.

In an email to customers today, the startup provided a few peeks at its Geezeo-powered PFM interface (screenshot below):

MoneyPulse: A snapshot of the your current financial situation with green/yellow/red dial so you know in a glance if there are problems.
MoneyPath: More of a typical budgeting piece.
Account aggregation: Beta users can already add accounts from several-hundred banks and credit unions; so unlike Simple, it appears Movenbank is supporting account aggregation out of the box
Spend | Save | Live: Primary navigation across the top of the dashboard

In addition, the "how it works" section shows a MasterCard PayPass sticker used for contactless payments (inset).

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Movenbank interface (from customer email, 28 Jan 2013)
Note: "Spend | Save | Live" navigation across top.
This appears to be a PC user interface, but it could be a tablet UI.

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Mobile Monday: Square Wallet Provides a Sneak Peek at the Future of Proximity Payments

By Jim Bruene Posted on January 28, 2013
Categories: Mobile Payments, Square

We’ve used Square to accept payments at Finovate events for two years and have had an overall good experience. And recently, when our name-brand merchant acquirer of 17 years partially shut off our account for giving them too much risk-free business (a subject for another post, once I calm down), Square saved us by happily accepting our CNP volume with its fat 3.5% fee.

But this post is about the other side of Square’s two-sided market, its mobile wallet for consumers. I’ve already written about Square’s gift card option launched right before the holidays, but I hadn’t used the wallet for day-to-day charges.

In surveys, consumers don’t yet see the value of a mobile wallet. Mobile payments are looking to replace a plastic-card system that works very, very well. And who’s costs, so far, are mostly hidden from consumers (note 1).
__________________________________

Rewarding Usage
______________________________________

Here’s why Square is better than plastic. And it’s not because you can pay with your name, which is nice, but a little unsettling for both customer and clerk. It’s the built-in rewards. And to a lesser extent, stored receipts/records (can you say PFM?)

We Americans are absolutely enamored with getting something for free. In total, we’ve joined more than a half-billion rewards programs (see inset, note 2). And it crosses all demographics. Have you seen how the billionaires’ eyes light up on Shark Tank whenever someone offers them a free cupcake or cup of frozen yogurt?

But we’re also ~~lazy~~ busy and few people want to carry a wad of punch cards around in their wallet/purse to earn rewards at local retailers. Plus, the cards are mixed blessing for merchants. The loyalty is nice, but merchants are mostly giving free stuff to regulars who would pay for it anyway. Paper punch cards just don’t do enough to convert people into “new” regulars.

This is where Square shines. When you use its wallet, a virtual punch card is automatically started for you (note 3). And when enabled, the next time you are near the merchant, Square will automatically remind you (via popup message) to come back and buy from that merchant. And even if it’s six months later, you get a second punch on that virtual card. And if all goes well for the merchant, they have incremental sales and you are well on your way to a complimentary mocha.

And all your previous transactions, with full itemized receipts, are available within the Square app (see left). It’s truly the future of payments available for a sneak peek today. I highly recommend giving the Square Wallet a try.

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Notes:

1. It’s also hard for consumers to answer questions about something they don’t really understand. It’s like asking someone in 1997 if they’d like to have their music purchases stored “in the cloud.” 10% would say sure, 10% would say I don’t know and the remaining 80% would choose the other options at random (but 100% would say WTF to themselves).
2. See our report on card-linked offers (Feb. 2011, subscription).
3. Starbucks does not currently support loyalty options via Square, but they are coming. Starbucks has $25 million invested, so they want Square to shine.

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Mobile Wallet Providers Woo Retailers at Annual Convention

By Jim Bruene Posted on January 22, 2013
Categories: Google, Mobile Payments, PayPal, Wal-Mart, Wallets

Last week I was just at ground zero of the mobile wallet battle, the National Retail Federation annual convention in NYC. It was a great opportunity to see what the folks from MCX, ISIS, PayPal and Google were telling the audience of 25,000+ retailers.

No one has won the war, but a few winners emerged at the skirmishes I witnessed:

Best Tradeshow Branding: ISIS absolutely owned the show in terms of branded impressions. They had their name on the bags (inset), on the registration desk, at two lounges and at their purple booth. Congrats to its Seattle-based marketing/PR team who made quite a splash with that six-figure buy.
Best Product Launch: Google was the only one of the four which launched a new product, its digital coupon/POS initiative, Zavers. The new service isn’t solely a mobile wallet, and the Google Wallet is a key piece of enabling technology. Although its booth was buried in the back, Google had a lot of traffic when I stopped by on day two.
Best Partnering: PayPal was the clear winner, announcing a huge partnership with NCR. (NCR, which owned the front of the show floor, seemed to have a huge buzz going at all times, and I don’t think it was a coincidence that the color scheme of the whole show seemed to revolve around the NCR booth). See the post at our Finovate blog for a summary of the deal making.
Retailer BFF award: The MCX panel featured execs from Walmart, Gap Inc., Lowe’s, Dunkin Donuts, and WaWa doing some serious bonding for an hour. It made me want to become a retailer, just so I could join MCX. It was impressive.
AWOL award: The bank networks, Visa and MasterCard, had virtually no presence, neither exhibiting nor speaking. Square was not represented either, unless you count the keynote by Howard Schultz of Starbucks, which owns a small chunk of the startup.

Bottom line: Things are still wide open and it’s impossible to see the winners yet to emerge. Silicon Valley remains enthralled with Square (which is partly owned by Visa), valuing it at around USD3 billion. NFC technology is hotly debated, and so far ignored by Apple, PayPal and MCX. There are 280 mobile payment startups hoping to become relevant. And all eyes are on PayPal and Google to further their partnerships with Discover.

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Mobile Monday: Top 50 iPhone and iPad Apps in the Finance Category

By Jim Bruene Posted on January 7, 2013
Categories: Apple, iPad, iPhone, Metrics, Mobile Banking, Mobile Payments

I knocked around Apple App Store last week researching our year-end Online Banking Report. Below are the current top free finance apps in the U.S. store (note 1). While there are not a whole lot of surprises, several are notable:

Credit Karma maintains its top-10 ranking (#9)
Intuit has three of the top-10 apps (#4, 6, 8) plus #30
Two of the top-5 financial institution iPhone app providers (PayPal and Capital One) do not yet have iPad apps
Three credit-monitoring apps are in the top 32 (Credit Karma #9, Intersections #23 and Experian #32)
Two banks each have two apps in the top 50: Capital One (#6 and #34) and PNC (#25 and #42)
Five fintech startups made the top 22 (Credit Karma #9, LearnVest #15, Lemon #19, Pageonce #20, Manilla #22); all but Lemon are Finovate alums (note 2)

Methodology: I first listed the top 50 iPhone apps from the “Free Finance” category (column 2). Then I went to the iPad store and found their corresponding iPad app rank (column 3). I then listed all the remaining iPad apps in the top 50 and their corresponding iPhone rank (last 20 rows below).

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Top iPhone/iPad Finance Apps in Apple App Store (USA)

Company	iPhone Rank	iPad Rank
PayPal	1	none
Chase	2	3
Bank of America	3	1
Mint (Intuit)	4	5
Wells Fargo	5	2
TurboTax (Intuit)	6	31
Capital One	7	none
TaxCaster (Intuit)	8	16
Credit Karma	9	none
American Express	10	7
Discover	11	13
Citibank	12	10
USAA	13	8
State Farm	14	47
LearnVest	15	none
Yahoo Finance	16	11
Easy Envelope Budget	17	42
US Bank	18	26
Lemon	19	none
Pageonce	20	23
Fidelity	21	12
Manilla	22	none
Identity Guard (Intersections)	23	none
Navy Federal FCU	24	none
PNC	25	19
iSpending	26	116
Barclaycard	27	35
Mortgage Calc (Zillow)	28	20
TD Bank	29	none
Quicken Money Management (Intuit)	30	17
TD Ameritrade	31	27
FreeCreditScore.com (Experian)	32	55
Pocket Expense	33	15
ING Direct (Capital One)	34	none
Quicken Loans	35	none
E*Trade	36	33
Spending Tracker	37	28
SunTrust	38	none
Western Union	39	none
iSpreadsheet	40	9
BB&T	41	46
Virtual Wallet (PNC)	42	40
Bloomberg	43	22
Budget	44	none
Expensify	45	53
Ally Bank	46	none
HSBC Personal	47	none
H&R Block	48	24
Bluebird (AmEx)	49	none
Seeking Alpha	50	none
Below top 50 iPhone
Craigslist mobile	not in finance	4
Money Magazine	none	6
ShareBuilder (Capital One)	114	14
CNBC	55	18
Real-time stock tracker	64	21
Vanguard	58	25
Morningstar Stockinvestor	198	29
Personal Capital	92	30
Regions Bank	54	32
Visual Budget	62	34
Merrill Lynch	84	36
Bloomberg TV	125	37
Mortgage calculator (Trulia)	102	38
SmartMoney Retirement Planner (Dow Jones)	none	39
Bills for iPad (iBear)	not in top 300	41
Budgets for iPad (iBear)	162	43
Checkbook free	53	44
Smart Budget	120	45
TD Ameritrade Mobile Tracker	86	48
EZ Financial Calculators	63	49
Schwab	60	50

Source: Netbanker observation of Apple App Store directly from iPad and iPhone around 6 PM Pacific, 7 Jan 2013

None = No app listed with the App Store for that device

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Note:
1. The Apple ranking system is a bit of a black box. But it’s generally believed to weigh heavily recent download activity.
2. Easy Envelope Budgeting (#18) is from a San Francisco-based Web developer Dayspring Technologies founded in 1998.

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