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Third-party apps like Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay have garnered much of the attention when it comes to proximity mobile payment. However, that does not mean financial institutions plan to sit on the sidelines. Banks have had much success with mobile banking and person-to-person payment apps in the last five years, but few offer consumers the functionality to make in-person payments.

Citibank was one of the most recent entrants when it announced in November the launch of Citi Pay, which will enable consumers to make online, in-app and proximity payments, which leverage Near Field Communications. Not more than three years ago, such a feat would be a long-shot for banks. Like all aspiring mobile wallet providers, banks would need to negotiate with mobile network operators to gain access to the secure element deep inside the phone where all the important information needed to execute an NFC payment, including personal details and card information, is stored.

That all changed in 2013 with the arrival of Host Card Emulation, or HCE for short. Android, which is the operating system used on 81% of the smartphones sold globally in 2016, first enabled this functionality on its phones when it rolled out the KitKit operating system in November 2013 joining Blackberry in support of this new technology. In February 2014, both Visa and MasterCard announced new specifications for NFC mobile payments using HCE, thereby opening the door to a plethora of NFC mobile wallets, including those from financial institutions.

Leading up to those announcements, both Visa and MasterCard conducted pilots with issuers around the world. Two of the banks — Capital One in the U.S. and Banco Sabadell in Spain — that MasterCard piloted the technology with have since rolled out the product commercially. In October 2015, Capitol One became the first bank in the U.S. to launch a mobile app with in-person mobile payment functionality, joining others like Barclays, Royal Bank of Canada and Taiwan’s E. Sun Bank in the marketplace.

Banks have three routes to the consumer: integrate into the mobile banking app; build a separate mobile payments app; or do both and integrate them. Capital One chose a separate mobile app dubbed Capital One Wallet. The in-person mobile payments functionality came as an update to the app, which had been used primarily to help customers stay on top of their spending. Bank customers with an NFC-enabled Android phone can transact payments at NFC-enabled POS terminals. Besides payments, the Capital One Wallet app offers additional features, including real-time notifications for all transactions, instant rewards redemption options, and easy access to balance and transaction history.

FULL ARTICLE SOURCE: http://www.forbes.com/sites/michelleevans1/2016/12/01/citi-pays-arrival-foreshadows-the-future-battle-in-the-mobile-wallet-wars/#33d6791055d0

You can hardly go into a drugstore or convenience store these days without seeing an option to pay using a mobile wallet such as Android Pay (formerly Google Wallet), Samsung Pay, and Apple Pay. These mobile wallets can hold your credit, debit, and prepaid card information—along with other cards—in your smartphone.

Only about 15 percent of smartphone owners use them to pay for purchases, according to the latest survey data from the market research firm CMB, but usage almost doubled from 2013 to 2015. And CMB says it will continue to rise over the next few years.

Here are five reasons to be part of this trend along with some caveats.

Mobile wallets offer increased security. They’re safer than carrying a credit card or cash in your wallet. That’s because information stored in mobile wallets is encrypted, so the details of your credit card, for instance, aren’t accessible to others. When mobile wallets transmit data to make payments, they never transmit your actual account numbers. Instead, they use encrypted payment codes. And your phone can’t be opened without your fingerprint or a personal identification number, so getting to your data is much tougher than opening up your wallet or pocketbook.

Even if a thief bypassed all the security, the risk to you is low. Mobile wallets usually require an underlying credit or debit card to fund transactions, and those cards limit your liability for erroneous or fraudulent charges to little or nothing. (The prepaid cards we rated can also be stored in mobile wallets, but you must register those cards to qualify for the protection.)

Retailers widely accept payment by mobile wallet. Samsung Pay can be used at more than 10 million U.S. stores, Apple Pay at more than 3 million stores, and Android Pay at more than 1 million stores. The numbers will grow as retailers upgrade their payment card readers. The new readers come with near field communication (NFC) technology, which is used by mobile wallets to transact payments with cash registers.

Samsung is the most widely available because it uses NFC technology and works with a second technology, Magnetic Secure Transmission, that mimics more securely the way a magnetic stripe works on a traditional credit card, according to Shruti Sehgal, a company spokesperson. That technology is already incorporated into many card readers.

Mobile wallets can be used for online shopping. Increasingly, retailers are making it easy to access your mobile wallet while you’re on their websites. That can make online checkout much more convenient, removing the need to type in so many payment card numbers, especially on phone screens.

Loyalty rewards programs can be stored in a mobile wallet. When you go shopping and use your mobile wallet to buy, say, breakfast at Dunkin’ Donuts, any points or discounts can be automatically applied at checkout. No need to carry a key chain with lots of store tags attached.

Mobile wallets may soon make store checkout faster. There are apps being developed that will let you speed through a store’s checkout lanes or use your mobile wallet to pay while you’re still walking in the aisles, says Amitaabh Malhotra, chief marketing officer for OmnyPay, which creates such functions for apps.

There Are Risks

Consumers should realize, though, that there are some potential drawbacks to using a mobile wallet. One could be increased fees. Because merchants pay fees to process cashless transactions, they can then pass on that cost of doing business to consumers in the form of slightly higher prices—just as they do with regular credit cards.

When consumers pay by mobile wallet, they also risk sacrificing some of their privacy. Retailers and banks can collect data based on the transactions we make, so they know the products we like to buy and the stores that we frequent. They can then use that information to target advertising.

But a bigger privacy concern is the unanticipated use of your data, because privacy policies tend to give broad permission for uses that may not even exist yet, says Claire Gartland, consumer protection counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

The biggest risk, though, could be a practical one. If your phone battery runs out of power, you’ll have to scramble to find cash or, possibly, an old-fashioned credit card.

Source: http://www.consumerreports.org/banks-credit-unions/5-reasons-to-use-mobile-wallet/

We already know that mobile wallets and payment solutions drive in-store sales, and we understand that loyalty schemes are a big part of that story.

But what will it take to get consumers using mobile wallets more regularly?

To find the answer, Points surveyed 1,500 consumers to produce a new study — “The State of Mobile Wallet Loyalty and Engagement in 2016” — and one result stood out as the main driver for future success.

Almost all consumers (94.4 percent, in fact) said they would use a mobile wallet more frequently if they could earn and redeem loyalty points and miles with every transaction.

While Points has an obvious interest in this result, the sample size is significant, and the results fall in line with other recent studies. It seems the answer to getting people to pay with their smartphones lies not in the convenience of doing so, but in what they get back if they do.

The report, however, also highlights a barrier to success: security concerns.

The security aspects of mobile wallets are, in reality, strong. But that isn’t the issue. Consumers are worried about “perceived” security issues, much in the way people mistrusted online transactions in the beginning.

“Consumers are still skeptical of mobile wallet security, and it’s been one of the major hurdles holding mobile wallets back from mass adoption,” Christopher Barnard, president and cofounder at Points told me. “People place a very high level of importance on security. Our study found that nearly four in five people said security was one of the most important features they look at when considering a mobile wallet.”

So how can mobile wallet providers fix this?

 “The best way wallet providers can improve the perception of security and decrease this skepticism is by educating users on the measures and precautions that they’ve put in place — providing consumers with peace of mind,” Barnard said. “It’s also important that any integrated services are just as secure as the mobile wallet they’re using. When a consumer knows that their money is safe and access to their credit card and banking information is locked down, they’ll be much more likely to engage with a mobile wallet.”

Security aside, driving mobile wallet usage through loyalty schemes is all well and good, but consumers may get “loyalty fatigue” as they become members of too many programs. With individual loyalty schemes, three leading hardware-focused wallets (Android, Apple, Samsung), a whole slew of third-party payment apps, not to mention pre-paid apps like Starbucks, how likely is it that we’ll see consolidation in this space, and how much is this fragmentation hurting adoption?

“While all this fragmentation is hurting adoption on the whole, it is helping to show us what’s working and what consumers want from mobile wallets,” Barnard said. “Most wallets do a couple of things especially well, but no one wallet has emerged as the single go-to for a critical mass of users. As these different solutions learn from each other, we’ll see consolidation happen as more providers hone in on aspects of mobile wallets that are really driving value and engagement. And we’ll see adoption increase when more solutions are able to deliver a more complete user experience.”

So what does the future look like, and what is the key to mass adoption?

“Consumers are looking for more ways to use their mobile wallets beyond payments,” Barnard said. “For example, most people have a rewards-earning credit card — they’re motivated to use certain cards on certain purchases because of the rewards incentive. Mobile wallets can offer the same opportunity when integrated with loyalty rewards. The study also found that nearly all consumers said that they would use a mobile wallet more frequently if they could earn or redeem loyalty points and miles with every purchase. This is a testimony to the fact that we’ll see greater adoption when more providers begin to integrate loyalty into their wallets.”

Source: http://venturebeat.com/2016/10/17/94-of-consumers-would-use-mobile-wallets-more-if-they-gave-something-back/

A mobile wallet pass sits inside a mobile wallet app like iPhone’s Apple Wallet. A pass uses the latest technologies, as mobile apps do and has the same reach to communicate with loyal followers to provide a better mobile experience.

We call this mobile wallet marketing and its already skyrocketing brands to engage and communicate with loyal customers.

If it seems like everyone is a mobile user, its because they are. Every single one of us is sticking our noses into a smartphone, Its time for SMBs to make the switch over to a mobile experience. 

Here are 7 reasons why mobile wallet marketing leaves your competitors in the dust:

Engagement – Its not the size of your loyal users, its your mobile ad – turn your loyal followers into hyper-responsive buyers.

Mobile updates –  Keep customers engaged with notifications directly to the lock screen.

Drive traffic to your ads – Compel users with mobile updates and add relevant links to your pass. Direct them to your promotion, mobile ads work!

Share Features – Gain more loyal users by sharing your mobile wallet pass through to any social media platform. A mobile wallet pass uses social share features. Encourage your users to share the pass on Facebook or Twitter

Location – Add your physical address to a pass to increase foot traffic. With one tap, the map app pops up to navigate to your desired location.

Connect – Customer service stays on track as customers & prospects in one tap can call or email your business. Add a phone number and email address to the back of the pass, just like you would your physical location.

No app required – Apps are outrageously expense to develop, discover and maintain for your loyal fanbase. Try a mobile wallet pass to reach and grow it instead. Mobile ads work!

Source: http://atlasrewards.net/7-reasons-why-mobile-wallet-marketing-leaves-competitors-dust/

Having a working phone during a hurricane may be as vital as having electricity — and the big four cellular carriers said their networks delivered by keeping nearly all its customers along Florida’s Treasure Coast connected as Hurricane Matthew churned north Thursday night.

AT&T Wireless, Sprint and Verizon executives said most of their customers remained connected before, during and after Hurricane Matthew, and their networks performed well.

Sprint reported having issues at one St. Lucie County, Fla., cell site, which was blamed on a power outage, said company spokeswoman Roni Singleton.

“Service should be essentially normal for our customers in the area,” Singleton said in an email.

Well ahead of the storm, cell companies rolled out emergency action plans to remain operational, which for Sprint included fueling permanent generators and mobilizing portable generators into threatened areas.

Katherine Goodman, a Realtor with the Stuart, Fla.-based Water Pointe Realty Group, and a 20-year Sprint customer, said she remained at her Sewall’s Point waterfront home during the storm and never lost electricity or cell service. Keeping connected, she said, was important personally and professionally.

“That’s what I depend on, that’s my lifeline for my business and my clients,” Goodman said Tuesday. “And when you’re in an emergency situation like this, people up north are freaking out; they don’t know what’s going to happen with their properties.”

Verizon had backup batteries at cell sites and switching centers that kept the network running and customers connected when commercial power failed, spokeswoman Karen Schulz said in an email.

“While we did lose commercial power in some of our network facilities, our anticipation of and preparation for that occurrence kept our network running,” Schulz said.

Their plan included pre-arranged fuel deliveries with tankers poised and in position to quickly respond to hard-hit areas.

“That preparation, along with 24/7 monitoring and action by our network team allowed the residents of your community to use vital Verizon wireless technology to stay connected with loved ones and emergency assistance,” she said. “We know reliability matters —  especially in times of crisis.”

Hard lessons

For thousands of beleaguered Florida residents during twin hurricanes Frances and Jeanne in September 2004, and Wilma in 2005, cellphones were the only means of communication.

Hard lessons were learned after powerful winds shut off electricity, disrupted landline phone service and toppled cell towers. Many government officials relied on 800-megahertz radios to communicate with each other.

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/nation-now/2016/10/11/cellphone-service-hurricane-matthew/91896466/

Visa Inc., the world’s largest payments network, introduced a mobile-phone application to enable cashless transactions in Kenya, where the majority of wireless payments are being done through the nation’s biggest telecommunications company, Safaricom Ltd.

The mVisa app will initially facilitate transactions for people with accounts at four banks, including KCB Group Ltd. and Co-operative Bank of Kenya Ltd., according to Visa Emerging Markets Senior Vice President Uttam Nayak.

Africa had 557 million mobile-phone users at the end of 2015, according to the GSM Association, an industry group. The company estimates 84 million of them still pay by cash.

 “Those can be converted overnight,” Nayak said in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. “We are very proud that it is inter-operable and not dependent on a bank and not dependent on a mobile operator. It democratizes payments,” he said of the system.

Users of mVisa make payments by scanning a unique merchant Quick Response, or QR, code using their smart phones. About 1,500 merchants have signed up already and Kenyan lenders with units in the region want to introduce the system in neighboring nations.

Visa is in talks to roll out the product in Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda within two months and expects to have the first Nigerian bank signing up by end-2016. It has also held “a number of conversations” in South Africa, according to Visa’s head for sub-Saharan Africa, Andrew Torre.

Competition

The company hasn’t been able to penetrate the African merchant base with its traditional card payments system, he said.

 “One of the reasons is we haven’t had as many cards as we’d like, the other reason is we haven’t been able to engage the hundreds millions of merchants where people shop,” Torre said.

The company launched the mobile phone-payments application in India in 2015 in partnership with seven banks, including the State Bank of India, and 30,000 merchants have signed up so far. The nation has 600 million bank accounts out of a population of 1 billion people, according to Nayak.

Safaricom, Vodafone Plc’s Kenyan unit, facilitated mobile-phone transactions valued at 5.29 trillion shillings ($52.3 billion) in the year through March 2015. The company had 49,413 active merchants and companies on its payment-collection service that settled trades worth 11.6 billion shillings in the same year.

“There is a lot of learning from Kenya,” Torre said. “Nigeria doesn’t even have any rising tide at the moment,” he said, referring to mobile-based transactions.

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-13/visa-introduces-mobile-money-product-to-rival-safaricom-s-m-pesa

Crowdfunding offers the promise of annual returns approaching 50pc for investors in a position to benefit from the tax reliefs on offer, but with 40pc of these start-up businesses failing, investors need to be wary of how they invest.

A very different prospect to peer-to-peer and debt-based investments, equity crowdfunding involves giving money to a start-up business in the hope of enormous returns.

Successfully funded businesses include a healthy ice cream company, an online livestock marketplace, a hummus chain and an on-demand beauty company. But very few businesses succeed on this scale – and many fail, losing all investors’ money.

Crowdfunding is not a place to put your pension or savings if you want guarantees of getting them back.

The high returns, tax relief and possibility that you could end up spotting the next Facebook and make millions all attract investors.

But it can be a difficult market to navigate. Here are nine tips to maximise your chances of success.

Choose a proper platform

Platforms regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, such as Seedrs and Crowdcube, offer investors a higher level of protection.

The better platforms should have checks on the businesses that they allow to use the site, as well as protection for investors themselves, for example against misleading advertising.

Other, unregulated platforms may not offer these protections. Check with the FCA, the City regulator, whether a business is regulated, and if not, steer well clear.

Sign with caution

Regulated sites will ask you to sign a document stating either that you are a sophisticated investor or someone with a large amount of assets.

Don’t sign this unless it’s true, as it means you will not be protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

Platforms may also allow other types of investors to participate under certain rules.

For example, Crowdcube allows people to register as an “everyday investor” if they don’t put more than 10pc of their investments into unlisted shares, of the type that crowdfunding platforms trade.

Seedrs asks potential investors to fill out a questionnaire to check that they understand the investment.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/investing/news/crowdfunding-how-to-spot-a-good-investment/

Some 25 million already have Kohl’s credit cards.

Kohl’s KSS 1.44% has joined Apple AAPL 0.78% and Walmart WMT -3.22% in the ranks of companies offering a mobile payment app.

The department store launched Kohl’s Pay on Wednesday, aiming to foster loyalty and wring more business out of its already large cohort of store-card holders. What’s more, by integrating the new app with its Kohl’s charge card and its Yes2You rewards program, Kohl’s is looking to gain a big edge over rivals like J.C. Penney JCP 4.00% and Macy’s M 0.86% by speeding up checkout in stores (an increasingly important consideration for its shoppers) and making it easier to figure out how to apply coupons.

“We want to make it very easy and frictionless, both on our digital properties like our app and our stores,” Kohl’s Chief Technology Officer Ratnakar Lavu told Fortune in an interview. “You used to have to take out your loyalty card, your charge card, and your coupons. Now you just have to take out the app in one step.”

To use Kohl’s Pay, customers who have a Kohl’s charge card need only save the payment information in the Kohl’s app. Once in store, when the customer is ready to pay, he or she selects Kohl’s Pay to bring up a QR code that is then scanned at the register, applying savings offers and other incentives and taking care of the payment all at once.

Kohl’s Pay, in the works for about a year, aims to take advantage of the fact that Kohl’s has 25 million store card holders, far more than its major rivals rivals, and that those shoppers generate as much as 60% of company sales as its most regular and loyal customers. The company has 40 million people in its Yes2You program, and nearly 14 million people have downloaded the Kohl’s shopping app, which lets shoppers browse online and place orders.

Source: http://fortune.com/2016/10/05/kohls-mobile-payment-app/

With the big shopping season just getting started, one of the most closely watched forecasts for holiday sales is predicting a merry time ahead for traditional retailers — and an even merrier one for online sellers.

The National Retail Federation predicted Tuesday that sales will tick up 3.6% overall in November and December to $655.8 billion. That would make it far better than the 2.5% average growth over the 10-year period, or even the 3.4% average in the last seven years as the nation emerged from recession. The forecast focuses on retail sales, excluding spending on cars, gasoline and restaurants.

The bigger gainers would be online sellers. Non-store sales are going to increase from 7% to 10%, the NRF forecasts, to $117 billion.

All of the fundamentals are in a good place, giving strength to consumers and leading us to believe that this will be a very positive holiday season,” NRF CEO Matthew Shay said in a statement. “Our forecast reflects the very realistic steady momentum of the economy and industry expectations.”

Other shopping outlooks are also rosy, predicting double-digit online sales growth.

In August, Kantar Retail predicted a holiday-season uptick of 3.8%, up from 3.4% last year, using the same basis as the NRF. Of that, conventional stores would see a 2% gain while online retailers will see a 16% increase, the most since 2011. A big factor in the jump is that lower food and gasoline prices will put more cash in shoppers’ pockets.

And eMarketer, which keeps tabs on online sellers, said digital sales will rise by 17.2% in November and December, and that total holiday sales will top 10% for the first time.

In making its prediction, the NRF cited the general health of the U.S. economy — one in which more consumers are likely to whip out credit cards for gifts.

“Consumers have seen steady job and income gains throughout the year, resulting in continued confidence and the greater use of credit, which bodes well for more spending throughout the holiday season,” NRF Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz said in a statement.

The season will also provide temporary employment for 640,000 to 690,000 workers, the NRF says.

Still, there’s plenty that could go wrong, the NRF acknowledges. The forecast could be thrown off by a global crisis, fallout from a contentious presidential election and a winter-season heat wave that could have people wanting to play in the sunshine instead of cooping themselves up inside warm malls.

But for now, the federation says it is staying positive, expecting shoppers to return to their die-hard hit-the-mall ways.

“Economic spending power of the consumer is resilient and it should never be underestimated,” Kleinhenz says.

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2016/10/04/holiday-retail-sales-grow-national-retail-federation/91567350/

Domestic handset maker Intex has partnered with mRUPEE, a Tata Teleservices subsidiary, to launch mobile wallet ‘Intex MyWallet’.

The wallet will offer easy and quick integrated payment functionalities and conveniences within the device related to recharge, money transfer, shopping, booking train, movie, bus tickets and more in just one click, Intex said in a statement.

“This is in line with our focus to offer the customers additional value which is being created right from video, gaming, healthcare, utility, entertainment, e-commerce/mobile advertisement, all packed in their handsets at customers’ fingertips,” Intex Technologies Head VAS Vineet Singh said.

Intex’s larger rival, Micromax, also has a mobile wallet service ‘Udio’ in partnership with TranServ and Visa.

 As part of its tie-up, Intex will also launch a white labelled retailer portal, wherein Intex retailers will be able to offer retail-assisted services of recharges, bill payments, utilities and money transfer.

Intex wallet customers will be rewarded for accessing content and other utilities by offering loyalty bonus that can be redeemed for talk time and recharges.

MMP Mobi Wallet Payment Systems Ltd (MMPL) is the payments arm of Tata Teleservices Ltd. It has an RBI license to issue pre-paid payment instruments in India and offers semi-closed wallet under ‘mRUPEE’ brand.

MMPL offers these services at 25 locations across the country through its over 6,000 retail outlets.

MRUPEE had previously tied up with IRCTC to provide a payment gateway, allowing users one-tap payments for rail ticket bookings. It also had a tie-up with SmartD, a lifestyle management platform.

Source: http://www.business-standard.com/article/technology/intex-partners-with-tata-s-mrupee-for-mobile-wallet-service-116100600383_1.html

When they need to repay someone, 4 out of 5 Americans prefer to use cash.

This and other findings from a new Cardtronics Inc. study reveal that despite having a wide array of choices in payment methods, U.S. consumers continue to use cash for expenses ranging from P2P payments to convenience store purchases to tipping and more.

The survey also uncovered surprising facts about how millennials use cash, according to a press release from the company.

The study was compiled using results from a Cardtronics-sponsored survey conducted in late 2015 that polled more than 1,000 U.S. adults.

“Our survey data clearly shows that in a competitive payments environment, cash is a predominant payment form and sits atop multiple spending categories,” Cardtronics CMO Tom Pierce said in the release.

When asked what type of payment they’d used in various situations over the past year, respondents named a variety of methods, with cash ranking No. 1 in a number of scenarios. Consumers’ first and second preferences were as follows:

paying someone back: cash, 78 percent; check, 18 percent

convenience store purchases: cash, 63 percent; debit, 41 percent

snacks away from home: cash, 67 percent; debit, 37 percent

grocery store: cash, 52 percent; debit, 51 percent

small business: cash, 49 percent; credit, 43 percent

restaurant: cash, 53 percent; credit, 48 percent

tipping: cash, 78 percent; credit, 27 percent

The Cardtronics survey findings also provided insights into how different demographic groups use cash.

“There is a myth in the marketplace that millennials have abandoned cash in favor of mobile and other digital payments,” Pierce said. It’s simply not true. … Millennials take an open-minded view of payments and cash plays a pivotal role in their payment choice mix.”

While more than half (57 percent) of millennials reported using a variety of payment methods, nearly half (45 percent) said that they’re more likely to pay more with cash now than they did a few years ago.

The survey also found that women are more likely than men (39 percent vs. 29 percent) to use cash as a means to manage their budget.

Source: http://www.atmmarketplace.com/news/cash-remains-tops-in-many-consumer-spending-categories/

App time swells to 86% of smartphone time

When it comes to the amount of time Americans have their heads buried in their smartphones, increasingly they’re using apps rather than surfing the mobile web. According to its latest estimates of time spent with media, Americans are spending even more time in mobile apps than previously thought—driven by consumption of news and video, as well as use of productivity apps, social media and mobile messaging platforms.

This year, US adults will spend 1 hour and 54 minutes a day using apps on their smartphones, 7 minutes more than last year. In contrast, they’ll only surf the mobile web on their phones for 19 minutes a day, a decline of 2 minutes from last year. In other words, apps will account for 86% of adults’ nonvoice smartphone time this year, with the mobile web accounting for just 14%. “Mobile apps are easily accessible and can be launched faster than the mobile web,” said eMarketer forecasting director Monica Peart. “Apps also provide an immersive experience with a greater degree of functionality, integrating with the device’s other apps and capabilities such as GPS, the camera and even the contact list. These elements keep users more engaged in each session, something that a mobile website cannot rival.” In addition to productivity and news apps, video continues to be a key driver of mobile, specifically smartphone, usage. Video time on mobile devices overtook that on desktop last year. This year, video consumption on smartphones will exceed that on tablets. American adults will consume video on their smartphones for an average of 15 minutes a day. That figure will steadily increase through 2018, as video consumption on desktop declines slightly.

A small but growing portion of mobile app time is being spent in messaging apps, such as Facebook Messenger, Snapchat and WhatsApp. This year, US adults will spend 5 minutes a day using mobile messaging apps (on smartphones and tablets), a jump of 146.4% over last year. It will represent 3.0% of in-app time. That figure is expected to nearly triple by 2018, to 8.4% of mobile app time. Social network usage, which does not include mobile messaging app usage, on smartphones will rise slightly this year to 21 minutes a day. This year, there will be 184.1 million adult smartphone users in the US, representing 73.6% of the adult population. That figure will grow to nearly 80% of the population by 2018.

Source: https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Smartphone-Apps-Crushing-Mobile-Web-Time/1014498

Mobile wallets are the payment technology of the future. We are still in the early stages of mobile-based payments as most of our online payments still happen through laptops and desktops, but the transition will happen at some point as more people start spending more time on their mobile devices. The slowdown in PC sales is another factor, which will ensure that in the future, the bulk of online payments will be processed via mobile devices.

Several tech majors have announced their entry into this space, with Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) taking the lead with Apple Pay, Google following it up with Google Wallet/Android Pay and Samsung (SSNLF) also jumping into the race. As a financial services operator, PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) is the only company outside of the tech circle to have a significant stake in the mobile payments domain. All four companies have decided to work with Visa (NYSE:V) and MasterCard (NYSE:MA), which means the competition will be between just the four of them while the card companies stay behind the scenes.

Though the deep-pocketed tech majors will have plenty time and adequate resources to build their payments systems, it’s an area where they have to build their expertise from scratch. In the case of PayPal, whose popularity can be directly attributed to the ease of use it offers to merchants around the world, the company already has strong levels of knowhow and an existing client base as well as merchant base that it can tap into. There are several reasons why, despite the competition, PayPal’s mobile payments system Venmo could win the race and stay at the top of the heap.

Existing users

One of PayPal’s biggest advantages is the company’s existing user base. PayPal added 6.6 million accounts during the fourth quarter, finishing the year with 179 million active customer accounts. During the quarter, PayPal processed $82 billion as total payment volume (TPV), with Merchant Services accounting for 81% of overall TPV. This is a huge stronghold for PayPal. Merchants are increasingly using PayPal and, as long as merchants remain with them, customers have more reasons to keep flowing toward PayPal.

Full Article Source: http://www.gurufocus.com/news/446097/paypal-moving-fast-to-keep-lead-in-mobile-wallets

Paying with your phone seems to be all the rage these days. First you needed NFC, with the likes of Google Wallet, or Android Pay, and then Apple Pay. Then you needed a Samsung device to work its magnetic secure Transmission magic. Now, Walmart is launching its own mobile payment solution — Walmart Pay — which requires the Walmart app. It’s now available in more than 4,600 of Walmart’s locations nationwide.

It would seem a little too good to be true if it was just an app, but Walmart’s foray into the mobile payment wars isn’t like the other payment systems at all. No, you can’t use Walmart Pay at Starbucks. It only works at Walmart stores, and it’s really just a glorified QR (quick response) code reader.

The service is targeted mainly toward people who shop at Walmart a lot, and already use the app to do things like refill their prescription, compare prices on eligible purchases with stores in the area, and check the in-store inventory. According to Walmart, the number of Walmart Pay users now numbers north of 20 million, and 88 percent of the app’s transactions come from repeat users.

“Nearly half of our customers bought their online orders on a mobile device,” said Neil Ashe, president and CEO of Walmart Global eCommerce. “That’s double last year, and significantly higher than the industry average.”

Technically, Walmart Pay should work on any smartphone, but you need the Walmart app, which is only available on Android and iOS. You can add any major credit or debit card, prepaid card, or even a Walmart gift card.

Using it is pretty straightforward: Once you install the Walmart app and register your card, all you have to do when you reach the cashier is open the app and choose Walmart Pay, activate the camera, and scan the QR code that appears on the debit reader next to the cashier. You’ll get an electronic receipt once the payment goes through. The company says you can even pay half the bill with cash and the rest through Walmart Pay.

“It’s important to note that Walmart Pay is not about improving payment, just for payment’s sake,” said Daniel Eckert, senior vice president of Walmart. “It’s about how we can use payment to create a better shopping experience for our customers in our stores. Walmart Pay is just the beginning.”

Walmart’s not the only big-box store showing its commitment to a proprietary platform. Reuters reported in December that Target was developing its own mobile payments app — slated for release as soon as this year.

Source: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/walmart-pay/

Consumers are learning that it pays to be choosy about which credit card they use. Many now offer some type of reward or incentive, so instead of using a card that pays nothing, it’s clear consumers should choose a card that offers some type of reward.

But what kind of reward? While there are many choices, a survey by Ally Bank shows most consumers prefer cold, hard cash.

Fifty-eight percent of the consumers in the survey chose cash back instead of miles, store promotions, and low introductory rates.

Ally Bank, of course, recently introduced a cash back card which has gotten some pretty good reviews. However, there are other cash back cards that offer attractive benefits as well.

First, let’s take a look at the Ally CashBack Credit Card. The card, introduced in June, will provide a 2% cash back reward when the card is used for eligible gasoline and grocery purchases. It provides 1% cash back on all other purchases.

Having a bank account can add to rewards

The Ally credit card also pays an additional 10% bonus if earned cash back rewards are deposited into an Ally Bank non-IRA savings, interest checking, or money market account. That makes it similar to another attractive cash back card, the BankAmericard Cash Rewards Card.

The BankAmericard product pays 3% on gasoline purchases, 2% on groceries, and 1% on everything else, on spending of $2,500 per quarter. It too provides a 10% bonus when you redeem rewards into a Bank of America account.

While the BankAmericard caps rewards and the Ally card doesn’t, the BankAmericard has the added benefit of a one-time cash bonus of $100 when you spend $500 in the first 90 days of account activation.

Meanwhile, the Chase Freedom Card is among the most generous of cash back credit cards. It pays 5% on up to $1,500 of purchases per quarter, with the categories eligible for the rewards changing on a quarterly basis. Still, if you managed to max out the purchases each quarter, you could earn $75 cash back.

Don’t want to keep up with rotating categories? There are plenty of cash back cards that pay 1% to 1.5% on everything, with no caps.

When choosing a cash back rewards card, the important thing is to choose one with no annual fee. Otherwise, the rewards won’t be quite so rewarding.

Source: https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/when-it-comes-to-credit-card-rewards-consumers-like-cash-091616.html

Have you ever bought fresh honey from a farmers market? I haven’t either. It’s too expensive. But those free samples are delicious. They taste so much better than anything you can get in the store that I was actually, for a brief moment, tempted by Honey Flow (ignoring the fact that I have no place in my San Francisco apartment for a beehive).

Australian father-and-son team Cedar and Stu Anderson invented this new hive as a way to safely extract honey without disturbing the bees. The Andersons figured they needed about $70,000 to get started. After 15 minutes on Indiegogo, they’d raised $250,000, and according to their website, Honey Flow became:

The fastest to reach $1 million

The fastest to reach $2 million

The most successful crowdfunding campaign ever launched outside the US

It’s worth noting that not everyone is sweet on Honey Flow. A lot of critics, particularly from the traditional beekeeping community, say the hive’s plastic combs are dangerous for bees.

Source: https://www.cnet.com/news/honey-flow-bee-breakin-crowd-funding-records/

With the increasing functionality of today’s mobile apps, smartphones can be quite demanding when it comes to data usage. For those with unlimited data, this doesn’t present much of an issue, but for customers concerned about overage fees, the fear of an unexpectedly high wireless bill may keep them from getting the most out of their smart devices. Recently, consulting firm P3 did a study on app usage over cellular connections, and found that of the four major U.S. carriers, T-Mobile customers use their apps over cellular more than those with other carriers.

The study was compiled from data of over 6,000 users between January and August of 2016. During the course of the study, T-Mobile customers averaged 141 app sessions per day while using cellular. AT&T came in a distant second place at 102 apps per day, followed by 85 on Sprint and only 72 on Verizon. T-Mobile customers did not only use apps over their cellular connections more but also consumed more data per day in total, averaging 139 MB over cellular and 268 over Wi-Fi. Sprint users consumed 89 MB over cellular and 168 MB over Wi-Fi, while AT&T came in at 74MB for cellular and 226MB for Wi-Fi. Verizon once again came in last, with less than half of the cellular data consumption of T-Mobile at 69 MB, and 147 MB over Wi-Fi. The results of this study make sense, as they show that those with fewer restrictions on their data usage use it much more freely than those using plans with limitations.

few years ago, when T-Mobile began their Uncarrier campaign, they started by making unlimited data standard for all users, freeing them from data restrictions. However, rather than charging fees, once a user had reached the limit of their monthly high-speed data according to their plan, their connection speeds would be reduced for the rest of the month. Even so, from the results of this study, it seems that consumers use their data much more freely when it’s unlimited, even if they face reduced speeds with high usage. With T-Mobile’s recently announced Uncarrier 12, cellular usage is likely to increase even further, as the company has announced that going forward, there will be only a single plan. T-Mobile ONE takes unlimited data to the next level, offering unlimited high-speed data. There are a few restrictions to how this can be used, and the company notes that customers using over 26 GB in a given month may be deprioritized for the remainder of that month, meaning that while their speed will not be universally reduced, they may experience slower speeds when necessary to preserve network quality (such as when connecting to a congested cell tower). Even with these provisions, however, most customers will be able to use T-Mobile service as much as they want without experiencing any penalties. Today’s smartphones do many great things, but the most important thing is that customers use them enough to get the most out of them, and in this area, it seems T-Mobile wins out over the competition.

Source: http://www.androidheadlines.com/2016/09/t-mobile-subscribers-use-the-most-apps-over-cellular-data.html