Irish Consumers (North & South) don't trust mobile payments - who'd blame them!?

Solair

Interesting article in the Irish Times about Irish consumers' reluctance to use mobile payments. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/0723/1224275294565.html

I think however, the article doesn't really explore the reasons why this is the case. Anecdotally, it would seem to me that many people have had their fingers burnt by poor regulation of premium text providers i.e. been stung badly by rip-off ringtone subscriptions services etc.

From what I can see, this has completely undermined the entire mobile payment industry.

I also wonder if the article has looked at how many Irish consumers happily purchase mobile apps on their phones through the iTunes Music store. There are over 250,000 iPhones on the O2 network and there must be a significant number on Vodafone at this stage, so it would seem surprising if people were not buying things through their handsets using iTMS and credit card or prepayment with vouchers.

The whole premium SMS charging system where providers can charge your phone with incoming text messages as well as outgoing just leaves me as a consumer feeling worried. I'd really rather be able to block those services entirely until a more reasonable system is put into play.

I don't really like giving service providers the authority to "direct debit" my phone bill!

Any thoughts?

I'd just be interested to know if others feel the same.

Mimikyu

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Mimikyu

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gu10

no doubt mobile payments will mean every financial institution and mobile network will get a commission on each transaction

more paying to pay, more data mining to profile you and try to sell you crap you don't want

cash is king. end of