Carriers Going For Mobile Payments

Carriers in the US are trying to turn their smartphones into mobile payment systems that will replace credit cards for many transactions. Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T are so serious about it, they are willing to partner with each other to accomplish this.According to Bloomberg, the venture is well underway and the three carriers are looking for a CEO to head up the company. The thinking goes, just about everyone has a credit card in their wallet and a cell phone in their pocket. If you can get rid of one of them, it would be the credit card as long as you could swipe your phone's screen against a new reader to pay for transactions.

I wouldn't mind if my phone had an app that charged my Visa card so I didn't have to carry the plastic, but I am not so sure I want to charge things directly to my phone's account, but that is exactly what it looks like the carriers want to try.

Discover is also in the joint venture and would be the banking partner to manage the user's accounts.

Thirty years ago everything was cash or check. The report says that today, nearly $3 trillion is spent using general purpose credit cards. If everyone's phone can be linked up to a credit account, plastic could go the way of the check in far less than 30 years.

Would you be willing to turn your purchasing details over to your wireless carrier? Can you imagine the targeted advertising they could implement with that kind of information?