How to give money away with your iPhone

Apparently there weren’t enough ways to give away money, so now you can do it with your iPhone.

Mobile payments firm Obopay is announcing today that you can use its iPhone app to give away money to your friends and family. It’s part of the company’s strategy to turn your mobile phone into a bank.

[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":146187,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"business,mobile,","session":"D"}']

Obopay is one of a number of startups that make it easy to pay for services with a mobile phone. Users can mobilize their credit or debit cards by linking them to a mobile phone number. They can then pay for services by giving their phone number and typing in a PIN code for security. Online merchants like it because it eliminates friction in payments.

To date, Obopay has focused on payments between people who have cell phones. It is also powering the new Nokia Money service, which you can use to buy cell phone minutes, pay bills, or buy goods and services. Now, with today’s announcement, the company is adding payment for games on social networks such as Facebook. Obopay says there are lots of synergies between powering Nokia Money and handling mobile payments for games.

The free iPhone app lets iPhone users send money to friends or family — basically anyone with a U.S. phone number, as long as they’re 13 years or older. If you send the money to your kids, you can track how they spend the money using the iPhone app. You can also use the app to receive money. Obopay charges 25 cents for a transaction.

You can set up your Obopay account to automatically deposit funds that you receive into your own bank account without manually having to do anything. You can view your full transaction history from anywhere, and you can set your phone to notify you when you get a request for money. It also verifies that a transaction is complete.

Among the uses: parents can send money instantly to children, or emergency money to a family member. With Obopay, you don’t have to worry about the kid spending more money than they have, as they can do with a credit card. You also don’t need to worry about not having the exact cash to pay a dinner bill. You can pay someone back on the spot with Obopay. Small business owners — like gardeners, babysitters or contractors — can use Obopay to be paid instantly

Obopay was founded in 2005. It has partnerships with Nokia, MasterCard, AT&T and Verizon Wireless. The company recently moved into enabling payments in social games via your mobile phone number.

Obopay has about 200 employees. Rivals include PayPal Mobile, Zong, Boku, MPesa, and others. Besides Nokia, investors include AllianceBernstein, Essar Telecom USA Limited, ONSET Ventures, Qualcomm, Redpoint Ventures, Richmond Management, and Wolfensohn & Co. In March, Nokia said it put $70 million into Obopay.