Using your cell phone to make payments is not a new idea, but the technology has just gotten a huge jolt of support. AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile are going to team up to promote near field communication (or NFC) payment methods, reports Bloomberg. The program will be tested in Atlanta and a few other cities and will be reportedly be backed by Discover Financial Services and Barclays Plc. The bad news is that the NFC methods will require new readers for merchants as well as chips built into phones.
I could definitely see NFC payment options catching on with the public if the technology is implemented correctly. More and more people are abandoning cash in their day to day lives to lighten their load, and the ability to almost completely abandon a wallet and just use a phone for paying for things could be huge. If your device were to get stolen, however, things could get devastating. The upside to this is that most phones have GPS capabilities as well as the ability to lock and wipe the device. Would any of you ditch your plastic for the ability to pay with your phone?
