The development of technology and its speeding revolution affect all those living in the modern world. From high-speed Internet connections to smartphones that can literally manage every operation you imagine, our world is changed by technology more than we can imagine.
Furthermore, this development has been going into the era of personal business more and more in the past years, so it is no longer uncommon to see personalized ads that pop up on our computers or apps that measure how much time you have in the gym until it’s time to catch your train back home.
One of these said technologies is paying by your smartphone. How good is it, what are the benefits and drawbacks, can it replace customary paying and what is the future of this innovation?
The Basics
Credit cards have been old news for quite some time now and millions are using them on a daily basis. Some have even stopped carrying cash around with them and the reasons for using credit cards are functionality, swiftness, safety and certain benefits many banks offer to their card holders.
What is almost contradictory is that some of these benefits are, however, making credit cards obsolete nowadays – they are not the fastest and most convenient payment method any more. Paying via smartphone is made possible by the wireless connection between your device and the bank and by synchronizing your bank account and a specialized phone app. Using the “tap and pay” method, you are done more quickly and there is no waiting period.
The Possible Uses
Smartphone payment is already being used by users worldwide and there are several extremely popular apps, but their number is on the rise. Android users in the USA usually opt for Google Wallet that is connected to their Gmail account, while iPhone users have several apps to choose from.
They all work more or less the same, but some include account-to-account transfer between two users, and the others bring QR codes into the picture. Certain brands and merchandise like Starbucks even have their own app for paying in their venues.
The Benefits
First of all, every smartphone user will tell you that having everything they need in their pocket is great and including the payment method into it makes their life much easier. But, apart from the convenience and obvious swiftness – you literally have to engage in a few clicks and you are free to leave the shop – what people love are the special deals.
In order to make themselves more appealing and promote smartphone payment, a number of businesses encourage their users to use this technology by promotions and discounts for this payment method. Finally, this is probably the biggest competition to the credit card as it has never found that much of a competition in paper money.
Due to that, credit card companies and banks offer special conditions in order to regain their client base, but it will be hard – after all, it is easier to get your payment technology over an online mobile shop than waiting for a couple of weeks for a credit card to arrive.
The Drawbacks
The biggest problem with this is security – if your phone get stolen, you can kiss your bank account safety goodbye. The same goes for a hacker attack. You can alert your bank and it can monitor your account for suspicious activity, but it is exhausting. Moreover, room for mistakes is much bigger here and you have to be extra careful not to press the wrong numbers on the touch screen or leave your phone unlocked in your bag or pocket.
The Winds of Change
All in all, smartphones are a natural line of succession in payment methods – cheques replaced cash, credit cards replaced cheques, and that is just the way things are. There are obvious advantages of this method, but it seems that not a lot of people believe in them. However, paying with the smartphone is a great perk of our age, but only if used smartly.
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This guest post was written by Neil Adams. If you’d also like to get your article published on Bizzvenue click here.
