The credit card industry is evolving and keeping up with this trend, employees of Bank of America are testing mobile phones which could be used as payment devices. The trials which are expected to last for six to eight months would be conducted at vending machines, cafeteria and convenience stores of the Wilmington offices of the bank. All the user would be required to do is wave their phones in front of the readers in order to make payment.
It is expected that around five hundred employees of the bank would be taking part in the trials. As of now the bank has plans of testing the cell phones in U.S only. Despite the fact that these devices are being used in a number of countries, no banks in America issuing credit cards have plans of rolling out mobile phone payment devices.
With these contactless devices the banks are planning to capture purchases under $15 which represents annual spending of more than $1 trillion.
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It is a fact of life that some are far better off than the majority, but there is a more disturbing fact that is becoming more and more evident every day. It seems the super wealthy seem to think that the rules don’t apply to them, and some of them seem to think that they should be allowed to get away with it. Recently, the investment giant Merrill Lynch had to be sold to Bank of America to avoid bankruptcy in the wake of the sub prime mortgage collapse. An article in the Wall Street Journal reports that Merrill Lynch CEO, John Thain, has asked for a $10 million dollar bonus for the year, after he had to sell the company to Bank of America to avoid bankrupting it. His rationale is that his actions led to the company not going bankrupt, and therefore he deserves a bonus. The Attorney General of New York State, Andrew Cuomo, termed his request as ”nothing less than shocking,” as it seems callous to even ask for a bonus of that size when his company is barely able to stay afloat. Now here is the funny thing – any other ordinary company employee, if they failed to make money for the company they worked for, or failed to complete the tasks set them, they get reprimanded or fired. Perhaps those at the top of the ladder don’t think that the same rules apply that apply at the bottom, and perhaps they should. However, the rest of us don’t have to sell ourselves to Bank of America if we have a financial crisis suddenly – we have options, such as payday loans.
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