Texan banks American National and Guaranty Bond have begun offering customers 'BlingTag' contactless stickers from mobile outfit Bling Nation to enable cell phone payments at the point-of-sale.
Each time a purchase is made using a BlingTag, the consumer receives a transaction confirmation and account balance by text message.
Since the BlingTag does not store any personal information, it offers more security than traditional plastic cards and reduces the risk of identity theft and fraud, says the vendor, which has won a raft of agreements with community banks across the American mid-west.
Martin Bell, executive vice president of Guaranty Bond Bank, says: "We chose Bling Nation because they offer a win-win-win product-banks and merchants win by reducing costs, consumers win by accumulating rewards each time they use their BlingTags, and community wins when more money is spent locally," he adds.
Local Mt Pleasant business owner Melissa Goolsby, says the introduction of the system at the point-of-sale has enabled her to save money on interchange fees and introduce new loyalty and cash back-based rewards programmes.
The use of mobile payment stickers as a market-ready alternative to embedded NFC chips in handheld devices is gaining ground among banks keen to stake a claim to the emerging m-payments space. US giant Citi began offering customers contactless stickers in June, while in Europe Rabobank Thursday started handing tags out to employees in advance of a wider commercial trial.