Use phone as credit card

FOR the first time in Singapore, credit card holders will be able to use their mobile phones to pay for their purchases.

Although only a limited trial - 300 hand-picked Citibank MobileOne (M1) Visa cardholders will take part - it marks the first step in making this mode of payment, currently only commercially used in Japan, available here.

The trial is aimed at determining customer spending patterns, such as where consumers will use such a service, and the system will be rolled out to more people if results are promising.

Trial participants have been given cellphones embedded with a computer chip that contains their credit card details.

They can pay for purchases of up to $100 at more than 400 merchants, including cafe chain The Coffee Connoisseur, music store Gramophone and Popular Bookstore outlets islandwide, by simply tapping their phones against a wireless payment terminal - a process similar to using an ez-link card.

Unlike normal credit card transactions, no signatures are required. If a phone is lost, users can cancel an account in much the same way they would with regular plastic.

The trial will last three months, said Citibank Singapore's business director of credit payment products John Denhof, and will help the bank get a better handle on the types of products and services consumers buy using this payment method.

In Japan, the world's most sophisticated mobile payment market, millions of consumers use their mobile phones as credit cards, paying for a wide array of products and services from petrol to airline tickets.

After being used for payment, the phones even double as tickets, storing an e-receipt that can be checked at an airport, for instance.

The possibility that such services could become available here soon piqued the interest of several people contacted.