By Andrew R. Johnson
Visa Inc. (V) is expanding availability of its new "electronic
wallet" through partnerships announced Monday with PNC Financial
Services Group Inc. (PNC) and 1-800-FLOWERS.COM Inc. (FLWS).
V.me is an application that allows consumers to store account
information for credit and debit cards, including non-Visa cards,
in a secure software program. They can use the program to make
purchases at online merchants that accept the service by entering a
username and password instead of typing in their card number for
each transaction.
PNC is the first U.S. bank to integrate with the service, and is
initially making it available to its 1.2 million PNC Virtual Wallet
accounts. Virtual Wallet is an online-focused checking and savings
account package the Pittsburgh bank offers. PNC also plans to make
V.me available to more than 6.3 million accounts next year, Visa
said.
"We believe the emergence of simple, secure payment technology
will play a key role in helping customers manage their money," Tom
Kunz, senior vice president and head of e-business and payments for
PNC, said in a statement.
Visa also said 1-800-FLOWERS.COM was joining a handful of online
merchants already offering V.me as a checkout option on their
e-commerce websites. Other retailers including MovieTickets.com,
BlueNile.com and Buy.com also have added the V.me checkout button
on their sites.
Consumers can sign up for V.me directly through the service and
through merchants that offer it as a check-out option.
Visa, which first announced V.me last year, is among the dozens
of companies rolling out services that are aimed at turning
consumers' smartphones into so-called digital wallets that can
store credit-card credentials as well as receive loyalty offers and
other discounts for shopping at specific merchants.
MasterCard Inc. (MA) announced a similar service in May called
PayPass Wallet Services that is intended to simplify the online
check-out process by eliminating the need to type in a card number
for each transaction. In August, Discover Financial Services (DFS)
said it would equip its base of seven million merchants to accept
eBay Inc.'s (EBAY) online-payment service PayPal in physical
merchants next year. That will allow consumers to swipe a plastic
PayPal card and fund transactions from deposit and card accounts
stored in their PayPal account.
Google Inc. (GOOG), several wireless carriers and numerous
start-ups are also offering or developing services that let
customers make purchases in brick-and-mortar merchants by tapping
smartphones embedded with special computer chips against a payment
terminal. Those services work with existing card accounts.
Write to Andrew R. Johnson at andrew.r.johnson@dowjones.com
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