Spending money becomes even easier

Paying for dinners and movie tickets using your cell phone as a credit card is about to get easier in Korea. Korea’s three leading mobile communication service providers ― SK Telecom Co., KTF Co. and LG Telecom Inc. ― announced yesterday an agreement with Samsung Card Co. to jointly offer a unified cell phone credit card payment system. Under the new system, cell phone users will be able to make payments anywhere irrespective of who their service provider is. Currently, for instance, SK Telecom users cannot make credit card payments at restaurants that have contracts only with LG Telecom. Cell phone users will be able to make credit card payments with phones fitted with a special chip. Consumers can apply for the chip from all branches of Samsung Card and over the telecom companies’ Web sites. The chips will be provided for free, but are only compatible with selected phone models. Also, for the time being only Samsung Card holders will be able to make credit card payments using the new system. The cell phone service providers said by the end of June next year, they will have installed some 200,000 cell phone readers that will be compatible with the new payment system. The new service will also allow cell phone users to simply put their phones on the readers and punch in their passwords. Under the current system, those wishing to make credit card payments with phones must select the required options on their phones before they place them on the readers. by Lee Hee-sung