Now that almost every payments-related company has a digital wallet of its own, it’s about time MasterCard showed off its digital plans.
The credit card company unveiled PayPass Wallet Services today at the CTIA conference in New Orleans. Just like the Verifone Sail mobile payments platform announced earlier today, MasterCard’s digital wallet feels very familiar to PayPal’s Wallet, Google Wallet, and a plethora of similar solutions.
It consists of the PayPass Acceptance Network, which includes PayPass Online and the company’s existing contactless payments service; PayPass Wallet, a secure digital location to store credit cards, bank cards, and the like; and PayPass API, which lets MasterCard’s partners connect to the PayPass network.
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The whole point of PayPass Wallet, as well as all of its competitors, is to give you a single location to store your payment information. If you’re looking to buy something online, or in-store, you’ll ideally tap into your digital wallet instead of opening up your actual wallet. If you’ve ever opted to pay for something via PayPal on a new shopping site, instead of filling out your shipping and billing info by hand, you can understand just how convenient a robust digital wallet can be.
Eventually, PayPass Wallet will offer features like seeing information about a product before purchase, setting up spending alerts and controls, and receiving coupons and targeted offers. MasterCard acknowledges that there won’t be just one digital wallet winner, which means it may be able eke out some market share amid the many competitors.
The company says it will make PayPass Wallet Services available to its partners in the third quarter of this year. It will first launch in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and the U.K.
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