Use a Cell Phone to Pay

New Zealand-wide, councils have offered cell phone and credit card payment methods for parking metres for a year or so now, offering a convenient alternative to carrying coins in our streamlined, electronically structured world.

Is paying for parking via your cell phone account much used avenue for inner city parking payment in New Zealand? Or perhaps, do the transaction fees associated (50c and upwards) put Kiwis off?

Major banks in Mexico have just partnered with telecommunications corporations to launch a mobile charge service, a technological advancement tipped to go worldwide over the next year. Cell phone users are able to link their mobile phone accounts to their bank accounts, and pay for everyday things such as taxi fares and meals at restaurants, via text message.

This service is initially targeted at technophile teens, and has seen significant success already in the birth country of much of today’s technological gadgetry: Japan. Will New Zealand teens soon be able to spend their pocket money as easily as they would sending a 4-second SMS to their best friend?