Usually on a Friday, I’d have a Featured Album Friday blog post up, but because I’m apparently hitting the books hard, I haven’t had a minute to really check out new songs – regularly scheduled posts will be back soon time, I promise.
Anyway, while in the middle of studying today, I received a registered letter that I had to sign for and everything, and lo and behold, it was a letter from Zoompass, informing me that I was lucky enough to be one of the first in Canada to experience the Zoompass Tag! I immediately applied my sticker to my iPhone, and ta daaaaa.
I am not fond of what it does to my iPhone aesthetically – it creates a really big bump on the back of an otherwise smooth surface, and turns it into a walking advertisement for Zoompass and Mastercard. Aesthetics aside, the utility of the Zoompass Tag currently outweighs the way the phone looks, so I will have to let it slide.
Of course, being a huge dork, I wanted to try it out right away. Here was the real test: I was going to leave my wallet at home, and just get out there equipped with just my phone and my keys. My target of the day was the nearby Tim Horton’s.
I walked inside, waited for my turn and ordered a double double. The woman told me how much I owed – $1.58, and I told her that I was going to be trying out a fast pass that was attached to my phone, and I showed it to her. She smiled and mentioned that she had never seen that before, but I should just hold it in front of the fast pass hub.
I wish I were joking here, but it literally took two seconds for the payment to go through, I was mightily impressed. With my large double double in hand and phone in the other, I thanked the cashier and was on my way.
Conclusion: Zoompass is shaking up mobile payments in a big way, and the Zoompass Tag evidence of just that. I’m getting VERY excited (or that may be the large double double I ordered) about the future in the mobile space, and I can’t wait to see what else is in store! Huge thank you to the people behind Zoompass for letting me try out the Zoompass Tag! 
Have a great weekend everyone!
Posted on March 5th, 2010 by Jon Lim
Filed under: Mobile, Technology
This is awesome Jon, lucky you! How did they pick you? Did you sign up for something? I’m excited to see more technology like this. I hate cash, coins, and receipts.
Well, I had to sign up for Zoompass (Which I did when it came out!) as well as their MasterCard. All of which cost me nothing, so it was a pretty sweet deal.
I’m a huge hate of coins as well, and would love to see more technology like this just to free up my pockets.
Awesome.
But how much did the large double double cost… with transaction fees?
How do you find the account management side of it all on the Zoompass end?
Checking my account balance, it cost me $1.58 – as far as I know, there are no fees for spending money with the credit card!
And account management-wise, there really was no hassle. Sign up for an account, sign up for the MasterCard, stick the sticker on and ta daaa, all done. I still have to sync up my bank account to it, but otherwise, haven’t had any blips whatsoever – they built a very strong system here.
So…if you lose your phone and someone finds it and it’s got this tag on it, they can just go and spend all your money is seconds at compatible paypass sites?
Technically yes, but there is the same amount of protection on it as a regular MasterCard could. In addition, at that point, I would be more concerned about my phone than the Zoompass Tag!
But with a credit card, either a signature or a PIN is required for an “in-person” transaction, but this would just be a mere swipe of the tag, yes? No PIN required or another additional step?
That is correct – just a swipe. But I assume they have protection in place for such occasions when you lose your phone. Similar to losing your MasterCard with the same PayPass technology in it.