According to a Feb. 25 report in “Wired”, Mastercard has just announced that it will be launching a new digital payment system. The goal of Mastercard is to create a quick, secure way to pay at the checkout without using cash.
The new system, called MasterPass, stores all your payment and shipping info in a secure “cloud”, which you can easily access through any mobile device to pay for items that you want. It works whether you're in a brick-and-mortar store or online.
To use this system, all you have to do is to click on the “Buy with MasterPass” button at checkout, open your MasterPass account, select your payment and shipping options and confirm your purchase. That's it! No longer will you have to enter your bank information and delivery address every time you buy something.
A customer can also make a payment by waving their Near Field Communications equipped smartphone past a NFC reader in a brick-and-mortar store.
You don't need Mastercard for this system to work either. It will also store your credit, debit, and prepaid card information from American Express, Diners Club, Discover and Visa.
This is what the mobile industry has been waiting for: a major player in the financial industry to organize all the different credit, debit, prepaid plastic cards and digital wallets into one system that is easy to use. Now more smartphones will be offering NFC.
Banks and stores will start offering a MasterPass“digital wallet” to their customers in the United States this spring, according to a representative from MasterCard on day one of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The Mobile World Congress is the largest mobile phone and tablet trade fair in the world.
This system will then be introduced to Britain in the summer and then rolled out to other markets around the world.
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