How does mobile money transfer work

Payments sent for a service provided or for purchasing a product through a portable electronic device such as a cell phone, smartphone or PDA are growing in popularity as mobile technology, security, and methods for sending payments improve and become more readily available. How does mobile transfer work when you want to send a payment to a vendor, service provider, or send money to friends or family members, and where are mobile money transfers happening?

Mobile money transfers continue to grow in popularity and ease of use worldwide. Asian and European markets were the first to readily adopt mobile payments, with the United States and Canada soon following. Today, due to enhanced technologies and easier access to smart phones and mobile networks, there are a variety of ways to send mobile payments. These include by text message, by passing a smartphone screen displaying a special barcode under a store's barcode scanner or by using a phone to take a photo of a check and sending it. If you are researching ways to transfer money or want to do a mobile money transfer or make a mobile payment, understanding how mobile payments work can help you find the most economical, trustworthy, and reliable methods for mobile money payment services, both domestically and globally.

Today, mobile money transfers (most commonly using text messaging as the form of payment) are used for retail transactions, paying bills, and even for paying school tuition. Text messaging for mobile payments is especially common in developing countries. Using a smart phone and mobile browser technology, or downloading an app for mobile payments, you can make a mobile payment with a few simple commands. Services such as Amazon’s textpayme.com and eBay-owned PayPal provide the ability to transfer money from a mobile device for domestic or overseas payments. Remote payment services such as Apply Pay allow you to pay for transactions in stores using a mobile device and the Apply Pay service. The e-wallet app, offered by Allied Bank, enables a user’s cell phone to hold value, which can then be used for purchasing goods and services which are either physical or can be downloaded directly to the user’s phone.

Mobile money transfer is enabled through an established system of rules called communications protocols, which provide mobile phones a safe and secure method for communicating with one another. When making a mobile payment from your device, the wireless carrier acts as the intermediary. Your cell phone transmits commands telling the wireless provider to add the specified amount of money to your bill by using a series of specific keywords. Once you pay your bill, the wireless carrier then transfers this amount to your recipient. It is a simple, easy process that takes only a few steps to complete.

Mobile phone money transfers are monitored by local and national regulatory agencies to ensure money transfers and payments are safe and legal. These agencies try to make sure that consumers are protected from fraudulent practices. The evolution of mobile technologies are also helping to make mobile payments more secure by providing technical security solutions to mobile money transfer service providers.