Word: freedompay
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...next natural evolution in cashless payments, after credit cards and debit cards," says Robert Pons, co-founder of FreedomPay. "Consumers want to make cashless payments at fast-food restaurants, car washes, coffee shops, convenience stores and video stores--places where you typically cannot use a card." Merchants looking to speed up service and cut down on employee theft are salivating--as are credit-card companies, which have had a difficult time grabbing a share of $10-and-under purchases...
Canteen Vending, based in Charlotte, N.C., is busy retrofitting 50,000 machines nationwide to take payment from FreedomPay wands by the end of 2002. FORTUNE 500 companies such as Prudential Insurance and GM already have vending machines that accept payment by wand. And Yale students will get similar machines in their cafeterias next year...
...transmit a unique code, your ID, which zips down the Internet to an account sitting in a computer at a transaction-processing company. No credit-card information is transmitted between the reader and the tag, so that information cannot be hijacked. 2Scoot bills your credit card of choice, while FreedomPay uses a debit system that deducts money from an "electronic purse" set up in advance using either cash or a credit card...
...lose your wand or RFID cell phone, you just report it stolen or missing, and FreedomPay or 2Scoot will deactivate it and issue a new one with a new code. And those who use the electronic-purse system usually keep only two-figure sums of money in them. "It's not like you're gonna buy a 1948 roadster with a $99 account," says Jim Forbes, an analyst for consulting firm IDG, based in San Mateo, Calif...
...they were always losing it," he says. "She liked the idea that they could use the wand only at McDonald's." Darmody also sees the wands as a tool to build customer loyalty--say, by offering customers a free dessert or a $5 credit when they spend $20. FreedomPay and 2Scoot do not sell their information, but they do tell retailers whether you have a penchant for Big Macs over cheeseburgers, or chocolate shakes over vanilla...