Payment by Cell Phone Coming to Canada

We’re catching up! While many of us may think that Canadians and Americans are in a relative stone age when it comes to mobile phone technology, especially when compared to our counterparts in Japan and Korea, it should be noted that strides are being made in the right direction. For example, Royal Bank has teamed up with VISA to develop a mobile payment system wherein you could pay for purchases directly using your cell phone.

Similar to the systems already in place in Japan, a NFC (Near Field Communication) chip could be installed on your mobile phone and then when you wave your handset next to a receiver, the payment goes through automatically with charges showing up on your cell phone bill. This would work alongside the Visa payWave system in conjunction with traditional credit cards.

Pilot tests are being planned in Ontario, but no real timeline has been laid out for widespread deployment.