Paying Bills By Text Message

Here's an interesting article I found on CNN Money about Paypal. The article starts off with:

PayPal is getting back to its mobile roots.
Back in 1999, when the company first launched as a tiny startup, it had designed software to beam money between handhelds and cell phones. It rapidly abandoned that plan when it found that buyers and sellers on eBay (Research) preferred to use a Web-based version of its payment service to settle auctions.

They also have some competition in this area from another company called TextPayMe.

The process for sending a payment with TextPayMe is simple: Users text an amount and the recipient's cell-phone number to TextPayMe, which then sends a text message to the recipient. To collect the money, the recipient later visits TextPayMe's website to register bank-account details. It's not unlike how PayPal's e-mail payments work today.

I can't wait to see these companies marketing strategies. I think I'll give them a look-see before jumping in. What about you? Do you like the idea of paying bills by text message? Leave me a comment and let me know.

Till next time...