PAY BY TELEPHONE

Pay by Telephone

Pay by Telephone

Introduction

The paper will attempt to provide a critical evaluation of the technological progress towards payment by phone being the norm. The paper explores extensive research into the use of mobile phones in this way and how it will be coming to the UK. In essence, the purpose of the paper is to engage in a critical analysis that can be expected to provide a comprehensive understanding of the manner in which the pay-by-phone concept can influence everyday life.

Discussion & Analyses

Shoppers soon will be able to use mobile phones to pay for things they buy at the checkout counter under a system unveiled by Google and a group of banks and other companies on Thursday. Google, MasterCard, Citigroup, transaction processing company First Data and Sprint will make the service available this summer in New York and San Francisco, Google and its partners said. The service, which competes with plans by Visa and other top United States banks and mobile phone companies, is similar to how people shop in Asia, where some customers already routinely wield smartphones like credit cards (Schwartz, 2008). Designed to work as an application on Android phones, Google's service hitches a ride on MasterCard's "PayPass" technology, which lets shoppers tap cards for payment.

Google has signed up retailers including Macy's Inc, American Eagle Outfitters Inc and Subway to blend the service with loyalty programs and discount offers. Google plans to take a slice of revenue from another project it released on Thursday called "Google Offers”. These are coupons, daily deals or discounts offered through Google searches (Torlak, Spillan & Harcar, 2011). They also will work on mobile phones. For example, executives described how someone walking by a Macy's poster can tap on an area, triggering a coupon that shows up in the mobile wallet. That person can save the coupon for use at checkout.

Some cell phones let consumers pay for anything -- from sneakers to lattes -- with money stored in virtual applications or by waving your phone, equipped with a tiny credit card sticker or chip (Visa, Discover, and Mastercard offer them), in front of a checkout scanner. Before consumers get caught up in all this gadget coolness, consider these potential snags. Bills may be harder to dispute Companies may route charges to your cell phone bill, which could lower federal protections that help consumers challenge bogus fees. Check policies before clicking Buy (Brownlee, 2011). Digital wallets are risky. Most pay-by-phone programs allow consumers to store your credit or debit card info, for the convenience of one-click shopping. If consumers lose your phone, anyone could gain access to your funds. Activate the security settings that prompt consumers to key in a password before completing a transaction. Spending is too easy. Studies show that consumers are willing to spend nearly twice as much when paying with plastic instead of cash, and researchers speculate that habits will only get worse when shopping by phone.

Millions of taxpayers will not receive the usual form from the IRS ...