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The Wallet-less Future

Starbucks introduced a pay-by-iPhone or -BlackBerry option at its shops nationwide in January, and the Twin Cities got a glimpse of what a wallet-less future could look like. Soon, people could be using their smartphones to pay for everything from fast food to utility bills. Both nationally and locally, activity around mobile payments has dialed up a notch. U.S. Bank wrapped up a pilot program in March in which it embedded “wave-and-pay” technology (the technical term is NFC, or near-field communication) in employees’ BlackBerrys and iPhones, asking them to use the devices at retailers with NFC terminals. For now, terminals are most common at convenience stores and fast-food chains, and are used with smart cards issued by credit card companies. U.S. Bank is one of four major banks working with Visa to combine the contactless payment technology with customers’ mobile devices. “This is about being able to provide the option for the customer to do business with us in the way they want to,” says Dominic Venturo, U.S. Bank’s chief innovation officer for payment services.

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