Cingular Wants To Turn Your Cell Phone Into A Credit Card

Cell Phone paiment -- or paying for things by waving one's cell phone to a special device -- has been described as "just around the corner" for more than 5 years but has never really happened yet in North-America. Now, Cingular is starting a trial with a bunch of New-Yorkers. Participants will be handed a Nokia phone with CitiBank's "PayPass" technology.

PayPass is not a cell phone only technology. Banks have been distributing contactless paiment cards that use the same system over the past months, so 30,000 U.S. merchants already accept it. Purchases will be added to the user's monthly cell phone bill. Many industry leaders believe cell phone companies are well positioned to become "paiment companies" since we carry our cell phone around everywhere. Japan's NTT Docomo has been selling paiment-enabled cell phones for more than 2 years.

Source: ZDNet