If using real cash is a pain and pulling out your plastic cards is a drag then what about texting cash instead?
That’s right; a new service coming to the UK means that you will be able to text money. You won’t be able to do it until the spring of 2014, though.
The details have been released by the Payments Council and the new process will mean allowing your bank to add your mobile phone number to their database.
8 Financial Institutions Already Signed Up
Eight of the country’s biggest financial institutions are confirmed as being part of the scheme and they are; Barclays, Cumberland Building Society, Danske Bank, HSBC, Lloyds, Metro Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and Santander. Other big names may well join that list before the scheme gets underway.
You may not be aware that a similar system is already in place in parts of Africa, among other places. A spokesperson for the Payments Council in the UK confirmed that the “technical challenge” of getting the database built us what has delayed us from getting this done sooner over here.
You might already use a similar sounding service – such as PingIt from Barclays – but this is the first process of its type which doesn’t need the account holder to use a separate account. It won’t be an obligatory service but if you want to do it then you only need to know the phone number of the person you want to send money to, rather than have to ask them for all of their banking details.
There will be some sort of security measure put in place to stop abuse and the limit on amounts which can be transferred this way is yet to be confirmed.
