News

BK, McDonald's part of BOA mobile payment testing

August 22, 2010

Bank of America will begin testing mobile payments in New York City in September. The test will measure whether or not a system will allow consumers to pay for purchases using their mobile phones.

McDonald's and Burger King will accept the payments as part of the test, which will run through the end of the year, according to PC World.com.

Other participating companies include BP, Home Depot, Walgreen's, CVS and NYC taxis.

A micro SD card inserted into mobile phones allows for the system to communicate with the payment device. The technology, which was created by DeviceFidelity, allows for users to wave their phone at a POS reader. The reader will recognize the users' banking information and withdrawal accordingly.

Mobile payment options currently exist in Japan, South Korea, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

The concept isn't new in the U.S. In 2008, NCR introduced contactless, mobile payment solutions in partnership with ViVotech.