Mobile wallet is a big thing now, with all the financial payment apps that have been created — making payments should be easy. With the mobile payment apps like that of Google and Apple Pay, you can easily pay with your smartphone. The fintech industry has a different payment system, and ways to receive money. With this system, you don’t have to worry about leaving your wallet at home.
There are different mobile wallet apps that you can use for online and offline payment, and it includes PayPal, Square, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, Apple Pay, Paga, Quickteller, etc. With mobile wallets, you can leave your purse behind and pay your bills with your smartphone. Although, currently not every store accepts mobile wallet payment.
Mobile wallet: A mobile device app
A mobile wallet is a financial app that allows you to make purchases with your smartphone. This device contains an app that stores your credit or debit card information to make easy payments. A wallet like PayPal, Apple, Samsung, and Google Pay is available for mobile devices, as well as wallets you can download from the Play Store or App Store.
No wallet, pay with your smartphone
Many stores (both online and offline) accept mobile wallet payment, a technology that lets you make payment via your smartphone. You could use your credit or debit card to pay for services and goods. There are different mobile wallet apps that works for different countries. And also mobile wallet apps that work for specific stores. This wallet is downloaded from the merchant website or the apps store. With the app, you can use it for payment.
Mobile wallet apps
They’re a lot, and you can’t possibly use all of them, you just have to pick from the best or the one used by your environment. With the different choices and features, we have some of the best mobile wallet apps from each continent (here, I think that’s better).
A mobile wallet app can also be own by merchants, they might create a payment app that can only be used for their store. You can easily download them from their website or the App Store. And, again your banks still have a mobile wallet app, you can use it to make purchases from stores that accept this payment system. Using a merchant wallet can earn you bonuses and point from the store.
There are more than 300 mobile wallets app available in the world, and some of which are very popular. Not all mobile wallet application works in certain places. And, some are tie to a specific country or continent. With the very few, here are some of the mobile wallet apps that are available for use.
- Google Pay
- Apple Pay
- PayPal
- Mobilepay
- Swish
- Quickteller
- Paga
- M-Pesa
- Samsung Pay
- AliPay
- PayTM
- PhonePe
- Fawry
Mobile wallet in Africa
They’re lots of mobile wallets application in Africa, with the booming financial technology application that have been over the last five years, I bet they’re many to choose from. Payment in Africa has been one of the major challenges in the continent, and various individuals have come together to solve these issues, and in the space of 10 years, we have seen some tremendous increase with some even becoming a unicorn company within 5 years of launching.
Mobile payment apps in the continent want to break the barriers of paying for purchases online, and sending and receiving money. Africa is responsible for 64.5% of mobile money activity in the world. Total transactions hit $27.5 billion (up 15%) valued at $495 billion (up 23%). As of 2020, there were 310 live mobile money services. Out of these, 55.2% were in Africa. It has 171 active mobile money services.
Africa is responsible for 64.5% of mobile money activity in the world. With $495 in transaction value.
How to use mobile wallet
How does mobile money wallet work, how does payment occur? Before the payment process, you need to link your credit or debit card information to your preferred mobile wallet application. When you are at check out and about to make a payment, you can use your device at the checkout line. If you’re in a merchant store like Walmart you can easily pay by placing your device near the terminal and scan a bar code to make the purchase.
If the merchant doesn’t have its application, you can use other digital mobile money wallets to pay for your bills at the merchant store. You can use mobile wallet apps to pay for services and goods while at check out. When using these mobile wallet apps you also get cashback and return, and earn points if you shop more.
Where it works best
The mobile wallet works best at online and offline stores that accept mobile payments. There don’t want you to carry your credit or debit card around, instead, they offer you a way to pay for purchases through your smartphone, and also get cashback. Having a mobile wallet lets you tap into the bonus reward program, which can keep track of the rewards program easily, and get the credit to redeem your bonus.
Mobile wallet security
Are mobile wallets secure? the question is mouth-watering. Cash can be stolen, credit and debit card can be hacked, mobile wallet is the same but you can protect your information by encryption. To do this you need to lock your device at all times, use a strong password with lower and uppercase mixed with a special character and enable a fingerprint for the wallet to unlock during the payment process.
The problem with the mobile wallet is that you can’t make payment whenever your battery is down, keep your device alive when you know you need to make payment.
If you decide to try out the mobile wallet, you can check out Google Pay for Android, Apple Pay for iOS, Samsung Pay for Samsung phones. If you want to get out of the box, you can try out order alternatives like PayPal, Paytm, OPay, Paga, Quickteller, and other merchant app like Walmart, Jumia Pay, and KongaPay.
