American Express to Offer Mobile Payments
Posted on April 21st, 2011
American Express has entered the mobile payment arena with its new mobile application, Serve(SM), targeted at those who use cash, checks and debit cards, rather than the company’s traditional credit card products. Serve uses Android and iPhone applications to manage digital accounts that allow online bill payment, person-to-person transfers and the ability to make purchases at millions of merchants who accept American Express cards.
Investing heavily into the application, Serve was created to take on major competitors in the mobile payment industry such as PayPal, and MasterCard. The digital payment platform will give American Express a foothold in mobile payment management and a piece of the growing Internet sales boom. By 2015, research firm Generator Research projects that the number of mobile users around the globe will reach 7 billion, while expenditure on mobile services will have grown to over USD 1.7 trillion; annual mobile payments are expected to reach $633 billion by 2014, with 490 million customers using them.
More About Serve
Serve will offer person-to-person, online, mobile and traditional card capabilities in a single account that will allow people to transfer money to others online or make payments with their mobile devices, whenever and wherever they may be. The process to request funds or make payments is simple and the creation of sub-accounts makes it easy to quickly pay people or businesses you frequently do business with.
Setting up an account is as simple as visiting Serve.com or accessing the application through your Android or iPhone and downloading the app. A Serve account can be funded from a bank account, a debit card or credit card or by receiving money from another Serve account. Create sub-accounts for access by your spouse, children or colleagues with specific spending profiles.
Only Two Service Fees
There are no fees for opening an account, no monthly fees, no fees for P2P transactions, no set up fees for sub-accounts and no fees to use the widgets. There are only two service fees:
- Adding money to an account will cost 2.9% +.30 per load (waived for first 6 months)
- Withdrawing funds from an ATM is $2 per withdrawal (one free withdrawal per month)
“We intend to quickly evolve the Serve platform by adding new features and functionality as we learn from consumer and merchant experiences. To encourage a broad cross-section of people to experience the benefits and convenience of Serve, we are working with a range of partners to integrate Serve as a payment method and deliver customized offers, and we will waive most consumer fees for the next six months,” said Dan Schulman, Group President, Enterprise Growth, American Express.
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Tags: American Express, Mobile
Filed under Credit Cards |