Canada Telecoms Launch Mobile Payment Service

GregDz11 writes to inform us that Canada's three main wireless companies will be launching a service that allows customers to send, request, and receive money via their mobile phones. "The service, called Zoompass, will be managed by Enstream, a joint venture the three carriers first established in 2005, when it was called Wireless Payment Services, to investigate the potential of mobile commerce. [...] Money can be drawn from an account the user sets up or from their credit card. Each withdrawal will cost 50 cents from the account, or 3.5 per cent of the transaction if from a credit card. (As a result, sending dollar amounts under $15 are actually cheaper to do using a credit card.)"

mobile is where it's at

[stoolpigeon]

some day I'm going to try to explain to my grandkids about how we carried around computers that needed their own bags, that weighed 'pounds!' and they'll laugh at something so absurd.

Re:mobile is where it's at

[chebucto]

Bah!

http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/z/ [ibm.com]

Computers have entered new niches over time, but no format has ever gone out of use. Mainframes are still around, as are minicomputers, workstations, desktops, laptops, and subnotebooks. Even smartphones aren't anything terribly new, being just a combination of PDAs and cell phones.

Rather, I think people will look back at our time and laugh at us for thinking that portable computers with full-sized keyboards would ever fall out of use :)

Overpriced

[Bradmont]

Why would you pay $.50 to use this when transactions on credit cards and (some) debit cards are free?

Trust issues...

[greed]

I'm having trouble thinking of an organization I trust less than Canada's telecoms companies to handle my money.

Has Bell figured out how to deal with incorrect direct payment transactions? When it happened to me, I had to have my bank block all transactions originated from Bell. Bell couldn't figure out how to identify the account making the bad transactions on their own--they actually needed the "payment refused" bounces from the bank. (They've got check-digits on account numbers now, but can they fix a problem from their end yet?)

A friend on Roger's discovered his phone had been cloned. The Roger's people thought that there was nothing odd about his phone being used in Toronto and in south Florida at the very same time. (The small claims judge did think that was odd.)

Usual 2 problems:

[Seth Kriticos]

1. They are too greedy and don't realise that only very few people would use the service at this rates, which effectively ruins the economy of scale calculations.

2. You can't limit the debt you get, which increases the loss in cases of fraud. This should work like pre paid cards where loss is limited.

Re:Overpriced

[xednieht]

Agreed... sounds more like a mobile bank-robbing service.

Cash is King

Re:Overpriced

[UnknownSoldier]

Exactly. And companies wonder why micro-trans won't take off here in the Western World.

In a digital world there is no reason why it should cost more then $0.01.

Paying to spend money...

[fremean]

I honestly hate the thought of paying money to spend money - surely it costs less to maintain a bank of computers then it costs to count and sort notes and coins. So many things have fee's for "digital" transactions these days - when in truth you're saving them a fortune (eg: cinema, $1 fee to buy and print your own ticket, 1: You're saving them staff at the counter, 2: You're saving them actual costs of printing the ticket. - and don't start with the "oh credit card fee" or "online processing costs money" cos surely if I were to pay with my credit card at the counter they'd cop the same fee)

Wrong. I take it you are an American?

[brunes69]

From the sounds of it you are an American.

Canadian's don't carry cash. Period. At least not Canadians under 30. This is one area in which the US and Canada are vastly different... cash is now hardly used for any transactions in Canada anymore, at all.

This service is actually very well priced because it is competing with E Interac email money transfers in Canada (EMT). Most banks charge you $1.50 to send an EMT if it is not covered by your banking plan. 50 cents is much less.

I can tell you right now, this service is going to be immensely popular.

What's the purpose?

[thethibs]

Compared to cash:

• It's not anonymous. Every transaction will be recorded, and if there's a way to analyse and use that information against you, someone will.
• It's not secure. The transaction data is radiated in all directions.
• You're liable if your account is hacked.
• 50 cents for the transaction, 15 cents each for the SMS message at each end = 80 cents per transaction versus nothing for cash.
• One more thing that doesn't work if your battery is dead or you're out of range.
• You still have to carry cash to deal with people who aren't part of the program.

This is as bad an idea (for the consumer, that is) as debit cards.