Originally published January 22 2006
TextPayMe sends money over cell phones
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Once a user signs up for a TextPayMe account, their mobile phone is able to send money to anyone with a cell phone. Accounts are free, but after the beta phase, users must pay 10 cents plus 0.50 percent per transaction.
A tiny startup in Redmond, Wash., has signed up about 500 users for its week-old person-to-person payment service based on mobile phones and expects to launch a commercial service in 2006.
With a head count of three, including two former Microsoft Corp. employees, TextPayMe Inc. allows individuals with cell phones to pay any other individual with a cell phone by sending text messages.
The company, founded just three months ago, is already receiving calls from interested payment processors and cellular carriers and expects to meet with investor groups next month, says Philip Yuen, chief executive and co-founder of the company.
For now, Yuen refuses to make volume predictions for the fledgling service, which is in the midst of a try-out, or beta, period set to run another two months.
Yuen, along with a former Microsoft colleague and a Web developer from Lockheed Martin, started TextPayMe to solve the problem of electronic person-to-person payments, particularly with respect to the local marketplaces, such as Craigslist, now multiplying on the Internet.
Transactions on such marketplaces start out on the Web but usually lead to face-to-face meetings, where the issue of payment arises, particularly for those who don't like to carry large sums of money or cut checks to strangers.
Once a user signs up for an account, he can use his mobile phone to send money to any person who also owns a cell phone.
The TextPayMe server, which receives the text message, sends a confirmation to the sender and prompts him to enter a PIN.
Yuen says TextPayMe hasn't decided yet how it will levy fees for spontaneous payments funded by credit card, though he says the company is leaning toward an even fee split between sender and receiver to compensate for interchange and other acceptance costs.
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