Yesterday we announced that Telus and CIBC were teaming up to allow customers of certain mobile devices, a CIBC branded MasterCard or Visa, to make transactions under $50 using their smartphone. Back in November, Rogers announced their Suretap wallet would be arriving soon, but they never hit the end of 2013 time-frame they were hoping for, and Rogers stated in an email to Mobilesyrup:
“We pilot all our programs internally and this often does take time. At this stage they’re working towards launching commercially in the New Year.” At the Wavefront Wireless Summit in Vancouver today, David Robinson, VP of Emerging Business at Rogers, gave a bit more insight into the upcoming Suretap Wallet and declared it’ll be released “soon.”
The Suretap wallet will also allow select Android and certain BlackBerry models to use a co-branded virtual Rogers Prepaid MasterCard that can be loaded with funds and then those funds can be used to make purchases at their favorite stores across Canada.
Rogers was going to phase in the Suretap Mobile Wallet program – first by partnering with CIBC, Visa and MasterCard, and then launch the Suretap payment option with selected NFC smartphones. The second phase was in the introduction of the Mobile Wallet side, where Rogers and various partners will “introduce an easy to use and seamless user experience that starts to shift consumer payments to mobile wallet.” Phase three will not happen until 2015 or later – called the “Transaction Experience.” This phase will provide add-value services with each transaction.
Rogers fully expects that future smartphones will come preloaded with the Suretap Wallet – what we like to call bloat ware – one day you may find that a OTA update arrived on your device and your wallet will be there, waiting for you. The screenshots look like Rogers will embed a prepaid MasterCard into the device – possibly branded “Rogers First Rewards.”
The goal of Suretap and all “Wallets” is to rid the people of their plastic credit cards – a good idea when you think about it. You normally have your smartphone wherever you go, why lug a wallet and credit cards with you as well. Cards are easy to lose, dangerous to hand to tellers, who can very easy copy down your name, card number, expiration date, and three-digit code on the back – all they need to make a purchase. With the wallet, you would simply wave you device over the reader, so your information will never physically leave your hand.
From the screenshots, it is also nice to see that you will be allowed to make up to $100 purchase versus the $50 limit on TELUS. According to the stats Rogers give, 86-percent of face-to-face transactions are under $100. You will also be able to opt-in to special deals and offers made by the merchants.
The app looks well thought out and intuitive, and a passcode needs to be entered to gain access, cards are organized by categories, and an option to see your transaction history.
Source/Photo: Mobilesyrup