Obopay Partners With Citibank

November 20th, 2008

Do you have a bank account with Citibank? In October, Obopay partnered with Citibank to offer Obopay’s convenient mobile technology to Citibank customers. This pilot program is the first time a bank has offered mobile-to-mobile money transfer in the U.S. Click here to sign up.

Of course, as always, you can still use Obopay even if you don’t have a bank account or do your banking elsewhere.

Fees or Foes?

Commenting on the Citibank partnership, Judy DeHaven of the New Jersey Star Ledger asks Are you paying with cash, credit or phone?

The companies envision people paying their baby sitter, sending money to college students or reimbursing friends, all using this new form of “m-commerce.”

Of course, there are fees — 25 cents for each transaction, paid by the sender. Non-Citi customers also can set up accounts, but will have to pay a 2.5 percent fee when they load money.

That just proves that even in the brave new world of m-commerce, nothing is free.

It is indeed a brave new world — each day we depend more and more on our phones for staying connected and sending money to loved ones or paying people who provide services.  The convenience of using the phone instead of cash or checks is totally worth modest, competitive fees.  What do you think?

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