Monthly Archives: February 2012

Be accountable

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Accountability clubs…now that’s a new one on me. Have you ever heard of the concept before?

For the unacquainted, accountability clubs are primarily where you can use the help (some call it pressure) of a peer group of like-minded individuals to hold you to account and provide focus for taking some agreed steps forward within a certain period of time.

SOURCE: http://theappliedknowledgenetwork.co.uk/accountability-clubs-do-they-add-up/

Hey, accountability clubs may not even be real as the subject doesn’t have a page on Wikipedia (yet).

3V launches pre-paid ‘youth card’ with parental controls

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3V – the global electronic Payments specialists, have launched a customised Chip & PIN Pre-Pay Visa card and money management service for teenagers, introducing the first payment platform to offer comprehensive parental access and controls for the youth market.

via 3V launches pre-paid ‘youth card’ with parental controls.

Boku, the new rival to PayPal?

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This should be interesting to follow: PayPal, the online payments company owned by eBay Inc, just got a new rival in the race to develop a mobile payment service that can be used in physical stores.

Boku Inc, a big online mobile payments company backed by venture capital firms including Andreessen Horowitz and Benchmark Capital, unveiled a new service on Thursday that lets people pay with any mobile phone anywhere credit cards are accepted.

Boku already provides carrier billing through about 230 wireless carriers, including AT&T Inc, Vodafone Group Plc and Verizon Communications Inc in more than 60 countries. This service lets people pay with their mobile number and get the transactions charged to their monthly phone bill.

Read more >>> PayPal Gets New Rival In Offline Payments Race « Internet « Techcircle.in – India Internet, mobile, consumer tech, business tech.

EA, Facebook and Sony are just some of the partners they cite. I’m going to sign up now and see what the experience and the service is like. Have you tried it?

64 hours of travel

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In fourteen days I’ve been:

  • In the air for 40 hours
  • Travelling to and from airports and waiting for planes for 12 hours
  • Travelling to and from my office for 12 hours

That’s 62 hours travelling in 14 days! Was it worth it? Yes, absolutely.

My travels took me to Cape Town, London and Miami: in all three cities I was fortunate to meet some of the most interesting people in the prepaid industry. The range of people was wide and included huge multi-nationals as well enthusiastic, entrepreneurial start-ups.

One thing is for sure, the prepaid sector is going to be seeing some exciting developments this year.

Don’t you know who I am?!

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Elizabeth Lumley writes about the challenges of proving who you are i.e. your identity.

Here is a taster of her commentary:

Seriously, voices were raised, fists were pounded on the table, literally, and people barked back and forth saying things like: “There is a difference between soft identity and hard legal identity!”, “You have no idea how banking really works!”, “I lock down my Facebook to the highest degree!”

…and my personal favourite:

“A terrorist could log into my bank!”

via Don’t you know who I am?!.

It reminded me of the challenges a French colleague had when he moved to the UK; it took him months to get a bank account to pay his legitimately earned salary into.

FNB eWallet gets a boost

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Yet more positve news about the prepaid market in South Africa; this time regarding eWallets.

First National Bank’s eWallet has seen a 133% jump in growth for the month of December 2011, processing over R140 million in money transfer transactions as compared to R60 million in December 2010.

“Every festive season since its launch, eWallet has continued to show remarkable growth,” says Yolande van Wyk, CEO of FNB eWallet Solutions. “Average daily transaction values have also increased to approximately double the figures we saw a year ago.”

via FNB eWallet gets a boost – Business News | IOL Business | IOL.co.za.

My favourite quote in the piece is from van Wyk, “We strongly believe that in order to experience further growth for eWallet it is important to look past just servicing the unbanked.”

Here, here.