Smartphones can be used as credit cards

BANGALORE, INDIA: Smartphones have a wide range of uses. They can be used as mobile music systems, as computers and even as internet access points. But in addition to all these, there is one more functionality that a smartphone provides you. You can now use your smartphone as a credit card.

BlackBerry users in Canada can use their BlackBerry smartphones as mobile wallets, which is similar to using a credit card. A Canadian Bank has already finalized negotiations with a major Canadian Wireless operator on providing the Mobile Wallet service. This service will involve embedding of users' credit card information on a chip which is going to be present in the circuitry of smartphones. Through this, people can pay for their purchases with just a tap on their smartphones.

This innovation by Research In Motion is expected to start a new cashless payment revolution across Canada. Google is also planning to introduce this service across the United States in the coming months.

Telus Corp, which is Canada's third largest wireless carrier, is planning tie-ups with a large number of banks across Canada in providing the mobile wallet service to customers. A large number of retailers in the country have already started to use the readers which read the mobile wallets.