<$BlogRSDUrl$>

A technology blog for The Economist Group IT team

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

PayPal by mobile 

Has anyone seen this? PayPal allows you to send money to people on your mobile:
www.paypal.com/mobile


So one of the suggested uses is that friends can cover one another at the restaurant or bar, and instead of you paying them back later, you can pay them back right then by sending a text message or calling the automated phone menu.


Upside:
> It's free, by looks of the signup and demo (already had a PayPal account, just had to activate this feature), looks pretty easy.
> It's a pretty cool idea.

Downside:
> I'm not altogether clear yet on what kind of hassle it is for the recipient to claim the money. Presumably once they have a PayPal account set up with their phone number associated it's all automated into their account(assuming that is a requirement, which now that I think about it could actually be part of an *insidious* plan to bring them closer to world domination while no one is watching).
> Security - you have a pin number, and there is a confirmation process, but I'm sure there is a way to hack this thing.
> I guess the "I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today" line is not going to cut it anymore...
Comments: Post a Comment

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?