The latest on American mobile payment companies making a play for Europe?
PayPal says it’s on the way. And Square so far is nowhere to be found. Which makes Intuit‘s announcement that it is launching its Intuit Pay mobile payments service in the United Kingdom all the more provocative.
UK consumers have been waiting for Intuit Pay since the fall of 2012, when the company announced its intention to break into the mobile payments market in Europe. Starting in the UK, Intuit hopes to expand both to a wider European audience, as well as globally. This would follow in the pattern of previous, successful, region-by-region rollouts (i.e., Intuit’s QuickBooks).
Consumers in the United States can currently take advantage of Intuit’s GoPayment app, which is functionally the same service as Intuit Pay.
The company’s move to the UK may have been encouraged in part by results from a survey suggesting that 47% of the small business respondents would accept cards if there were more affordable options, such as a smartphone or tablet. Currently, less than 20% of companies with less than 10 employees accept card payments.
Intuit was last on the Finovate stage in September 2009. The company demoed an integration of TurboTax for Online Banking with FinanceWorks.