Released: February 14, 2007

Cellphones as pocket-size banks

Source: Kathy Chu and Christine Dugas, USA Today

People already use their cellphones to surf the Web, take photos and text message — besides making calls. Now, a growing number of banks are also letting them pay bills and transfer money through their cellphones.

In December, Wachovia, the nation’s fourth-largest bank, began allowing more than 4 million online-banking customers to view account information and transfer funds via cellphone. The two largest banks, Bank of America and Citigroup, will soon unveil similar services — with the further ability to pay bills by cellphone. BofA said Tuesday that it will offer cellphone banking next month to customers in one state, Tennessee, and to other customers nationwide by midyear.

These rollouts mark the industry’s first widespread launch of cellphone banking. In the late ‘90s, Bank of America and others tested the technology with a small number of consumers. But it never caught on. Banks are betting this time will be different, since most consumers now carry cellphones, many of them Web-enabled.

Read Full Article: Cellphones as pocket-size banks