Blaze Mobile, an Alameda, Calif. provider of mobile commerce applications, has partnered with MasterCard to produce a contactless payment sticker that can turn a mobile phone into a payments device. MasterCard says it sees this approach as a bridge to fully integrated contactless payment capabilities using NFC technology.
The small mobile payment sticker can be used at any of the more than 141,000 merchant locations that accept MasterCard PayPass. It is tied to a prepaid account and is issued by MetaBank, a federally chartered savings bank headquartered in Storm Lake, Iowa, that specializes in prepaid cards.
Although the mobile payment sticker is designed to work specifically with mobile devices, it functions just like other PayPass device. The sticker transmits card information to the merchant’s point-of-sale terminal, via secure radio frequency technology, allowing consumers to tap their mobile device with the sticker affixed on a PayPass reader to complete the transaction.
The mobile payment sticker was designed to complement the Blaze Mobile Wallet, a mobile commerce application available for free that enables mobile phone users to purchase movie and event tickets, manage bank accounts at more than 8,000 supported financial institutions, view electronic receipts, and create expense reports.
“Having a payment capability on the phone is a great way for consumers to see the benefit of having a payment capability in the phone,” said Art Kranzley, Chief Emerging Technology Officer at MasterCard Worldwide. ![[end]](/resources/bullet/nfcnews-4.gif)
