The Future of Mobile Payments
Have you ever walked out the door to go buy something, but as soon as you get there you realize you forgot your wallet? What you probably didn’t forget though is your smartphone. Thanks to modern technology you may not have to go back home to retrieve your wallet. If you have an Android or iPhone then you have the option of enabling the device’s mobile payment option (as long as your bank is supported).
On Android’s side there are two options available. The first is Android Pay and uses the NFC (Near Field Communication) feature that you can turn on and off in the notification drop-down menu. Once that is enabled you’ll need to add your card in the Android Pay app. It will ask you to verify some info and then you’re all set! At some retailers you’ll find a logo on the checkout terminal that looks like this:
When it asks for you to pay just hold your phone up to the terminal and it’ll receive your payment.
Samsung, the company in charge of creating the wildly popular Samsung Galaxy and Note series has their own exclusive form of mobile payment dubbed Samsung Pay. It’s almost identical to Android Pay save for one additional feature that it has. Samsung Pay can also use a method called MST (Magnetic Secure Transmission). This allows the Samsung device to also work on traditional card readers since MST mimics the magnetic strip on cards. Samsung Pay also requires the user to either use their fingerprint or enter their PIN to authenticate the payment.
On the other side of the playing field is Apple’s iPhone with new devices supporting Apple Pay. It works basically the same way as the other two, but has many more supporting banks and retailers. Apple Pay also requires the user to authenticate purchases with Touch ID.
One bonus of all the mobile payment methods is that they all support payment of in-app purchases as well. Mobile payments are paving the way towards a future where a user will not need a dozen cards to hold in their wallet, or maybe not even need a wallet at all.
