'Pay by phone' gets new meaning with Visa trial

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 27 August 2008 12:07

Your IT - Mobility

Has the coin-free payments revolution finally begun in Australia? A contactless payments trial is allowing participants to charge small purchases to their credit cards simply by waving their mobile phones over a reader.

The trial is being run by Telstra (Australia's largest carrier), National Australia Bank (NAB, one of the country's 'big four' banks), and Visa.

200 people and 12 merchants in the Docklands area of Melbourne (where NAB has one of its largest sites) will participate.

With a transaction limit of $A35, the idea is to provide quick and convenient payment for purchases such as lunches and magazines.

While the trial is said to be Australia's first, various similar trials began last year in Europe and Asia.

Examples include one in London involving Barclaycard and Oyster (the contactless card used to pay for public transport), one at a Dutch supermarket outside Rotterdam, one in Taiwan that included more than 2000 stores around the country, and a large-scale trial in Korea involving 30,000 people.

And the use of Hong Kong's Octopus public transport card for store and restaurant transactions has already moved well beyond the trial phase.

How does it work? Please read on.