Zoompass: Canadian Mobile Payment System
Well, first I see some very spam-like comments on my Prepaid Credit Cards article for the Zoompass stored-value payment system. How dare anyone think that my website is some free-for-all advertising spam board, we have real standards here and I am disgusted to see such garbage around here. If someone wants to advertise a crappy product here, they better be paying for such a privilege.
Now I'm seeing a bit of web advertising for it. Looks like a soft-launch to me.
I think it's just a stored-value system (like a prepaid credit card) integrated with Paypass. The difference with Zoompass and a prepaid reloadable Mastercard is that Zoompass:
- Allows you to send money to other Zoompass users, reload and check your balance through a mobile web application
- Well, that's the only difference, except, just like cell phones, they may nickel and dime you to death (or will do moreso shortly) almost every time you try to use the service, even for services that shouldn't cost anything to begin with
It is being launched by the Canadian cell phone companies, including the usual suspects of Rogers, Bell, Telus, Fido and Koodo. It seems to me that they're trying to compete with Paypal, and I think they'll have a hard time getting the critical mass required. What canadian in their right mind would want a Canadian cell phone company to get an even tighter grip on one's money?
Besides, I don't think Paypal ever really caught on as a personal money transfer system between friends or co-workers, cash and cheques work fine for that, I don't see why people would use a clunky cell phone application for this. How many people have had billing problems with their cell phone???
I can see it right now, a monthly "$6.95 Money Access Fee". As if the banks weren't bad enough.
ZoomPass Isn't Quite the Convergence Device I Had Hoped For
It doesn't look like the Paypasses are actually integrated into the phones, they have a separate Mastercard for that. It seems that the phone part of the company is just a web application that lets you transfer money to your friends etc. that have these accounts. No integration with Paypal as far as I can see. I'll bet that the phone companies will let you use this web application (and certainly no others) without a data plan at some point.They say that "You can send money to anyone who uses a mobile phone on the Bell, Fido, PC Mobile, Rogers, Solo Mobile, TELUS, or Virgin Mobile network." but this isn't really true. They let you send payments to people that don't have a Zoompass account, but then they'll have to sign up for Zoompass to get their money. If a friend did this to me, I'd be quite angry. Zoompass' website says: "If the recipient is not already a Zoompass member and does not set up a Zoompass account within 30 days, the money will be automatically returned to your Zoompass account."
Even though it is in beta, these are the Canadian cell phone companies were talking about, nothing is free, even services that costs nothing to provide and would cost nothing if real competition actually existed.
So here's the main prices that Zoompass is charging:
| Send Money | |
| - From Zoompass Account - From Credit Card |
$0.50 3.5% |
| Receive Money | Free |
| Add Funds from Bank Account | Free |
| Withdraw Funds to Bank Account | $0.50 |
| Insufficient Funds | $10.00 |
| ATM Withdrawal – Domestic | $1.50 |
| ATM Withdrawal – International | $3.50 |
| ATM Balance Inquiry | $0.50 |
| Foreign Currency Transaction | 3.5% |
| Chargeback Fee (Invalid Dispute) | $10.00 |
| Replacement Card | $9.95 |
Anyone have any comments about Zoompass? Seem like a good deal? Bad deal? Any problems or success stories? Where do you see the service going? Where should it or should it not go?
Thank You
Dan, a huge thanks for this great public service of a site. I have been consulting it for months (mostly because I was waiting for Canadian Tire to take their prepaid card nationwide) trying to evaluate the best option for me (I'm a new arrival so no credit record!).
I could have gone with the BMO card (there are plenty of branch offices here) and might do in the future, but I went with Zoompass for a couple of reasons, one of which is that I'm already a Fido customer (so I qualify) and also because I'm now finally in need of getting the card quickly, and Zoompass looks to be quicker.
Your honest and candid comments -- and those of various others -- helped me tremendously and its a real service to those of us looking for "the straight dope" on such cards.
I'll let you know my experiences with Zoompass (though I don't anticipate any trouble!), but in the meantime I just wanted to express my appreciation for this public service. This sort of thing (cutting through the hype) is really what the internet is all about -- or should be! :)
Cheers
Chas
Thanks for the comments! Let
Thanks for the comments! Let us all know how it goes.
You've certainly read me right: I'm not much a fan of hype or marketing, a good product will sell itself.
As a new arrival from $Anywhere, I'm surprised you actually trusted anything a Canadian cell phone company produced, as I'm sure you're used to cheaper, more convenient and more consistent service from your home cell phone companies.
Zoompass
I opened up a Zoompass account a couple months ago and requested their credit card, which I never received. When I contacted them about that, I received an email, requesting me to fax them my driver's license.
Zoompass limits
$1000 is the max balance you can carry on Zoompass. So if you are trying to use it as an after bankruptcy credit card you may need a different company. If you want to use this card to book trips buy anything over $1000 it is not possible. As a smaller amount money transfer card it isn't too bad. They do keep your money for 2 days after they take it out of our account though. After it is removed from your bank account it will not show on your zoompass account for 2 days. They say it takes 2-3 days to process but really they mean it takes one day to process and they keep your money for 2 days to get a head start on collecting interest.
It seems like a good card.
It seems like a good card. If all you do is using the Mastercard for purchases, you don't pay a dime. I've recently opened a Zoompass account, will give some impressions when I'll receive the card.
Attacking NFC phones
For your reading pleasure:
Attacking NFC phones
http://events.ccc.de/congress/2008/Fahrplan/events/2639.en.html
http://events.ccc.de/congress/2008/Fahrplan/attachments/1109_collin_mulliner_eusecwest08_attacking_nfc_phones_slim.pdf
And this is only the start of the problems with NFC in mobile phones.
PayPass + ContactLess Payment Security
It is very difficult to secure hardware that is in the hands of a consumer, where they can do anything they want. I've said before, with the amount of resources spent toward pay-tv hacking/cracking (another example of the security hardware being in the hands of the consumer), I could only imagine what kind of resources would be put toward cracking these ContactLess payment systems.
Evolving area, let's talk about rewards
(First the disclosure - I'm the VP of Strategic Partnerships for EnStream, the joint venture behind Zoompass. We have pretty strict policies re: Internet postings, so you won't see any of our team doing so without identifying themselves. We don’t hide and we believe that it's important to have an open and honest dialogue out there... I'm surprised to see the fantasticly famous guitarist Fred Frith posting here - I'm a big fan "Fred" ;) )
Quick summary:
1. This is a beta - we're sharing our ideas, and learning what works and what doesn't.
2. Fees - see above. It's hard to make everything free given how expensive it is to develop and run this technology, but we're pretty pleased to be offering what we see as a darned compelling prepaid product at a very good price.
3. Technology - it's going to change, it's going to evolve. It will work - the phone and wallet will merge. It's just a matter of how and when. I think Zoompass is well on the way.
4. Product enhancements - Fred's wrong, the product and technology will evolve, it's already evolving...and yep, we're working on faster access to funds in your bank account (it's a bit tricky though)
5. Rewards - very cool idea. I've actually just finished up yet another meeting where this was suggested. We're open to ideas. What would you like to see in a prepaid rewards program? There really isn't much revenue generated through our current prepaid card model, would you be willing to pay a fee for a card in order to get rewards? Tell me what you want and I'll do my best to champion your ideas. Please feel free to post them here, on our blog, or send them to support@zoompass.com. I will also be at Mobile Monday and Sprouter's events in Toronto this week.
Thanks for your feedback and comments – keep it coming.
Zoompass
Dan, I was the one that originally posted the "spam like" comment on your web site. First, I do not work for Zoompass, Bell, Rogers, or Telus and for full disclosure, do not own shares in any of these companies. I am an avid technology geek and signed up to the service when I first heard they launched. I do like what they did with the service and the cool mobile app and thought it would interest your readers. The service may have some limitations but that's why they launched it as a "Beta" I suspect. I actually think the fees are not bad for the service ... the money transfer fees are better than Interac's transfer service and comparable to paypal. The prepaid card is free ... not bad considering every other bank in canada screws you on prepaid card fees. Ok - now for the negative. It would be nice if the service allowed real-time transfers in and out of your bank account instead of having to setup a stored value account and wait 2 days for money to get in. I personally use prepaid cards, but I see how this might deter usage. It would also be cool if you could buy things with your phone directly at the store ... I suspect they are working on this. Finally, they should consider a loyalty program or some incentive program to get people hooked and using their card.
I am a Canadian and like seeing technology innovation like this take place in Canada. It will be interesting to see how the service evolves.
Zoompass
For the most part, I think people should be very skeptical when the cellular companies in this country want to get into the banking field. As someone that is also interested in seeing technological innovation in Canada, I can't help but be immediately suspicious about the very companies that have stifled it so much for so long. These are the same $6.95 SAF (or is it $8.95 now?) and 3 year contract for a phone that'll be obsolete in 1.5 groups we're talking about here.
I don't think people are too impressed with most stored-value systems unless they're solving some overwhelming problem (like auction payments). Stored-value systems seem to revolve around making spending your money more inconvenient, while charging you for such a privilege. I think they're 5 years too-late, Paypass (which is smart enough to not charge the consumer) will already achieve market dominance before Zoompass gets their RFID-based or mobile-app-based retail payment systems out the door. Small payments between friends/relatives are usually easy enough to do in person (rarely do I owe friends across the country $20), and Zoompass isn't getting into the big-payment market where they might actually be able to compete with EMTs.
Dexit (which I believe Zoompass has plenty of roots in) was well-capitalized too...
Zoompass Mastercard
After further investigating, it looks like it might be a worthy cheap (free?) prepaid Mastercard option, but I don't think that was really the intent of their product, since the revenue model is pretty weak for that. Possibly the Mastercard is a stop-gap for when they try to release a mobile-integrated Octopus-like product? The main issue with PayPass is handling off-line payments, ironically hampered by unrealistic low-speed cellular data pricing.
Not evolving
It won't evolve and as for using NFC( RFID) phones at retailers, that will mostly likely not happen as well. That technology is simple too insecure to used with mobile phones for purchases.
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