Prepaid cards are being utilised for many applications today. These range from giftcards to low cost banking applications. Applications for payrolls and cheap alternatives for cash distribution have been rolled out many times. All of these applications are based on plastic cards. The use of magnetic stripe solutions are by far more popular than any other solution.However the technology is available today to deploy prepaid card products by making use of mobile phones. This means that no plastic is produced and any communication, redemption and payment is dealt with by mobile phones. The use of mobile phones as the means to "virtual" prepaid cards can lead to a lot of benefits:
- Prepaid cards can be distributed much more easily and cost effectively (e.g. by making use of SMS's)
- Prepaid cards can be distributed and activated with much mre security features
- Additional payment functionality can be made available that was never possible before, and
- Information related to the use of pre-paid cards can now be gathered more easily and acted on
Retailers should consider the use of mobile pre-paid cards in future