FNB’s eWallet – One step closer to eMark of the Beast

What is FNB’s eWallet?

Well when I first heard about it on TV I nearly had a small heart attack.  If eWallet catches on which it will, because I believe First National Bank is the UN’s New World Order bank of choice for South Africa, then it will be quite a big step towards moving South Africa towards a cashless society. Your SIM Card becomes your bank account. Your cellphone will become the device to do all your banking and purchases.

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eWallet allows FNB customers to send money to anyone with a valid SA cell number. The money is transferred instantly and can be used to buy prepaid airtime, send money to another cellphone and more…

• You can Send Money to friends and family members or make a payment to anyone simply and hassle-free;
• Money can be sent to anyone who has a valid South African cellphone number and the recipient does not need to have a bank account;
• Any GSM cellphone model can be used to Send Money or to receive money;
• Money is instantly available in the eWallet;
• Money will be stored in an eWallet. Recipients will be able access the money immediately at an FNB ATM without needing a bank card and without filling in any forms;
• Recipients will get all of the money sent as there are no ATM charges to withdraw money;
• Recipients don’t have to withdraw all the money at once;
• Recipients can also check the balance, get a mini statement, buy prepaid airtime, send money on to someone else’s Cellphone or buy goods online using Cell Pay Point
• You can Send Money at any time of the day or night via Cellphone Banking, FNB Online Banking or at an FNB ATM.

A recipient of money can:

• Send a portion of the money in the eWallet to another eWallet in exactly the same way;
• Withdraw all or some of the money from the eWallet at an FNB ATM without needing a bank card. The rest of the money can be withdrawn at a later stage;
• Buy prepaid airtime from the eWallet;
• Check the eWallet account balance or get a mini statement;
• Pay for goods and services online from the eWallet using Cell Pay Point;

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Cashless Society: Mobile Phones Could Replace Cash and Credit Cards

Credit cards may soon be as outdated as vinyl records. (Remember those?) And this is the year that the slow, steady march to oblivion begins.

You can already use your iPhone, Droid or BlackBerry to buy a hotdog at the ballgame, buy your Starbucks latté, or give a friend a few bucks by Bumping phones. But by the end of the year you may not even think twice about reaching for your phone to pay at the register instead of fumbling for your credit card.

“Your plastic card hasn’t changed since the age of the vinyl records,” said Michael Abbott, CEO of Isis, a new mobile payment network. “This is the chance to bring payments forward from the plastic age and the vinyl records age to the digital age.”

While companies have been experimenting with contactless mobile payments for years, 2011 is expected to be the year the technology really takes off. That’s because millions of phones capable of making contactless payments are expected to be shipped out in 2011.

As a result, this pay-by-phone market is forecast to make up $22 billion in transactions by 2015, up from “practically none” last year, according to research firm Aite Group.

“Mobile payment is going to get really interesting and is going to see a lot of activity in 2011,” said George Peabody, director of emerging technologies at Mercator Advisory Group. “We’re going to start seeing more and more people leaving their homes without their wallets.”

But that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen overnight, said Jane Cloninger, director at Edgar Dunn & Co., a consulting firm specializing in financial services and payments.

“I definitely believe that the mobile wallet will eventually replace the plastic card — but it’s going to take some time because consumer habits take a long time to change,” she said. “But where before it’s been a lot of discussion, we’re at the point now where you’re going to start seeing momentum toward it and going to see it move beyond the trials and into reality.”

Companies including Visa, MasterCard, Google, Bank of America, Citi and U.S. Bank are all testing contactless mobile payments, and many expect to roll out mobile wallets this year.

“2011 is going to be a very exciting, very dynamic year when it comes to mobile payments because it’s the Wild West again, with all these players positioning in various different ways to redefine the digital payments landscape,” said Michael Upton, senior vice president of online and mobile banking at Bank of America, which expects to launch it own mobile wallet later this year.

Meanwhile, AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon joined forces with Discover and Barclays in November to form Isis and provide a rival to Visa and MasterCard.

“It’s a glorious competitive battle amongst some of the largest entities in the country,” said Peabody.

The Isis mobile wallet will let consumers store multiple cards, make payments with the wave of their phone, check balances, receive coupons and use rewards points at the point of sale. But it may stretch beyond just the money in your wallet. Abbott sees the potential to include your insurance cards, driver’s licenses, and other information typically found in a wallet.

“Payment is where we’re going to start, but where it goes is wide open to the innovation of other players who want to be involved,” he said.

Beth Robertson, a payments analyst at Javelin Research and Strategy, said that could mean developing ways for consumers to make contactless ATM withdrawals by simply waving a phone in front of an ATM as you would at the point of sale.

But because of just how much your smartphone now holds, it’s quickly becoming your most dangerous device.

“We’re increasingly living our lives on our cell phones…The problem is that we’re not yet used to thinking about our wallet in terms of our phone,” said Ed Goodman of Identity Theft 911. “No matter how good security on any type of mobile banking or payments, there are going to be people who are able to find a way around it — it’s really all about making sure everyone ramps up their awareness.”

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