Want an NFC iPhone? Just stick a bank card in it

Want an NFC iPhone? Just stick a bank card in it

An iPhone 4 owner who couldn't wait for Apple to add NFC functionality to its handsets has taken matters into her own hands, sticking a contactless bank card inside her phone.

It's still not known whether Apple will add NFC to the upcoming iPhone 5, enabling owners to make payments at the point-of-sale by tapping their handsets against NFC readers.

However, with some Google Android handsets already offering the technology, Unplggd's Vivian Kim couldn't wait any longer, taking the back off her phone and sticking a mini contactless Bank of America card to the iPhone's battery.

With few handsets so far having built in NFC functionality, several firms, including Citi and MasterCard have turned to contactless stickers that can be attached to the back of handsets.

Meanwhile, Visa has partnered vendor DeviceFidelity on a microSD-based iPhone case that turns the handset into a contactless payments device although one bank that has trialled the technology, ANZ, recently ditched it.

Comments: (3)

Jan-Olof Brunila
Jan-Olof Brunila - Swedbank - Stockholm 01 August, 2011, 14:19Be the first to give this comment the thumbs up 0 likes Dear Sirs, Some years ago I saw kids in Tokyo that had glued a contactless card to the back of their mobile phones and thereby upgraded into contactless mobile! Systems integrator: PlasticPadding!
John Dring
John Dring - Intel Network Services - Swindon 01 August, 2011, 15:43Be the first to give this comment the thumbs up 0 likes

Superb!  This is exactly my point that NFC trials have nothing to do with Mobile Operators processing payments, but the existing payment processors who control the (current) POS terminals (as they get cycled to include NFC readers).  The operators is just selling a few handsets. In time, Payment Apps will allow payments via NFC channel to divert funds from SIM resident credit or directly from the mobile account. Such an App, if trusted, could create a nice payments statement for you and aggregate payments from different sources into a single view - useful.

 

A Finextra member
A Finextra member 02 August, 2011, 13:47Be the first to give this comment the thumbs up 0 likes

I also tried this, but the card only works if you hold the phone the right way round. The internals of the phone (most likely the battery) block the signal otherwise.

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