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Cellphone NewsMobileLime Appeals to Last-Minute ShoppersDec 22, 2005 Need a last-minute gift? MobileLime says it can make it easy with its mobile phone payment solution. The company, based in Watertown, Mass., developed software that enables consumers to use their phones to buy products at participating merchants. Through MobileLime, consumers can link their mobile phones to a credit card, checking account or prepaid account. Most of the stores the company does business with are in the Boston area and New Jersey, but MobileLime has deals with stores elsewhere and is making a big push early next year to cover more parts of the country. Grocery stores, drug stores and restaurants are among its top target locations. "We work with all cell phones," says MobileLime CEO Bob Wesley, whose background includes management positions at American Express and MasterCard. But if you think the cell-phone/credit card purchase process will only increase Americans' love affair with their debt-laden credit cards, that's not necessarily so. Wesley says his company's solution doesn't encourage any specific payment method. In fact, setting up a prepaid payment system can help educate the credit-ready how to budget their electronic cash, he says. And handling transactions with a phone actually may result in a boost for security. Wesley cites research out of Vodafone that shows it takes an average of 18 hours for a consumer to realize a credit card is gone, whereas it takes about six minutes to discover a mobile phone is missing. "This device is used all the time," he says. The company doesn't have deals directly with wireless carriers, but has held talks with them and found they are interested in the application. |
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