So this week wrapped up the CTIA wireless conference and one of the main areas of focus was mobile payments. On CNN this morning I talked about how companies are starting to create more apps and ways to use your phone to make purchases. This area is starting to get more attention lately because of an iPhone app called BUMP. BUMP teamed up with PayPal and announced that you can transfer money between 2 iphones, even split a dinner check and that news has brought more attention back to an area that has actually been around for a couple of years. Back in 2008 Papa Johns was 1 (if not) of the first to enable people to use your web -browser on your phone to order Pizza and pay for it.

There are a few ways you can purchase items from your phone:

– Text messaging (like you saw with the Haiti fundraising efforts)

– Mobile apps that are made for specific phones (like BUMP etc)

– Mobile Web browsing (companies are making their existing websites mobile accessable)

– Telecom companies like Verizon have announced using a service that has been very successful for past few years in Seoul Korea-Verizon is calling the new program “Bill to Mobile” with this service when you purchase goods some merchants will give you the option to bill to your mobile account not a credit card.

Currently there are estimates of about 10 million people using their phones for mobile transactions. Its expected to grow to 75 million in 4 years!

Are you comfortable using your phone for money transactions?