Wallets Go Mobile with Rogers, CIBC

Wireless purchases | BCBusiness
Soon smartphone users may not need a wallet as daily merchant purchases go mobile.

CIBC and Rogers win the wireless banking race as the first partnership to make smartphone payments for merchants possible.

Instead of reaching for a credit card to buy your morning coffee, Rogers customers will soon be able to pay using their smartphone.
 
Rogers and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce announced a partnership on Tuesday allowing mutual customers to make daily purchases using a Rogers wireless phone. Users download their Visa or MasterCard information into their smartphone and can make small purchases under $50 in a few seconds.
 
While Rogers and CIBC are the first to make this technology available to the public, Canada’s other major banks and wireless carriers will likely follow in their footsteps with their own version of the payment system in the coming year.
 
CIBC reps compare the technology to bump-and-go credit cards, which only require a quick wave over a reader at the checkout counter to process a payment. However, the contactless credit card technology hardly got off the ground with either consumers or merchants. Will mobile purchases catch on with everyday Canadians?
 
If the general public adopts wireless payments, the technology could quickly make credit cards and cash obsolete.