Gone are the days of rummaging through bags for cardholders, opening them up, finding the right card in between the loyalty cards and remembering a pin number.
Mobile payment apps allow smartphone users to make quick transactions anytime, anywhere. This means shoppers can make purchases with a simple tap or scan, as well as send money to family in a time of crisis, pay bills with a receipt and without the queues. Mobile payment apps offer convenient and widely accepted mobile payment solutions.
These are our Top 10 mobile payment apps, which are making our lives easier, while enforcing security.
10. Worldpay
Worldpay started out as a payment processing system, founded as Streamline in 1989. After being absorbed by NatWest, then by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in the early 2000s, Worldpay underwent a significant expansion over the ensuing years, culminating in divestment from RBS and the sale of the business to Advent International and Bain Capital in 2010. In 2017, Vantiv acquired Worldpay in a deal totalling around US$10.4bn, adopting the name Worldpay Inc in the process. Finally, FIS purchased Worldpay for US$43bn—rumoured to be the biggest-ever deal in the international payments space.
9. Monzo
Monzo was unveiled in 2015 as a mobile app and prepaid debit card, launching its first full current account from 2017. Over ten million customers enjoy the benefits of being able to spend abroad with no fees.
Monzo has also recently redesigned its mobile app and homepage, making navigation even easier for customers. In its own words, Monzo is “building a new kind of bank” that “lives on your smartphone” and is built for today’s rapidly-evolving world.
8. Square
In 2009, Square invented the first mobile card reader of its kind, allowing merchants to be able to take payments anywhere.
Established by Block, Square empowers SMEs to process credit card transactions, promoting the use of smartphones and tablets as point-of-sale (POS) terminals.
This fintech has expanded its product portfolio to include Square Wallet, Square Market and Square Payroll. The organisation has continued to grow in recent times, launching a new reader for its magstripe terminals, releasing Square Stand, a tablet POS system, Square Register, a new digital till system, and Square Directory.
7. Cash App
Cash App Pay is a fast, easy contactless payment method allowing Cash App customers to pay merchants by scanning a QR code. It is available for use with both in-person and online merchants.
Cash App was designed to take the hassle out of peer-to-peer payments and evolved to become a dynamic financial ecosystem, offering a range of services, including Afterpay (Clearpay), to 50 million active users.
6. Zelle
Operated by its parent entity, Early Warning Services, Zelle was introduced as the replacement for the clearXchange payment platform in 2017. Using Zelle, users can transfer funds to friends or family using an email address or US mobile phone number. This is done directly through a banking application, regardless of who a person banks with.
Since its launch back in 2017, Zelle has sent over five billion digital payments and now connects 2,100 banks and credit unions.
5. Venmo
Venmo was founded by college roommates seeking an improved method of transferring funds among themselves back in 2009. It was also the year that BlackBerry and Android also launched app stores.
Today, Venmo is wholly-owned by PayPal, has 90m users and processes hundreds of millions of transactions across the US.
The standout features include a social feed for transactions and easy peer-to-peer transfers, while the user experience is characterised by a simple and user-friendly mobile app. Security measures include PIN protection and bank-grade encryption, with fees being free for standard transfers and a 1% fee for instant transfers, and the service is primarily used in the United States.
4. PayPal
Elon Musk co-founded X.com in 1999, which merged with Confinity the following year. After the merger, the team of the combined entity focused on PayPal. In 2002 eBay acquired PayPal for US$1.5bn. Musk went on to use some of the money he made from the sale of PayPal to create spaceflight services company SpaceX.
PayPal offers both mobile payments and peer-to-peer transfers, ideally suited for small businesses, online merchants, individuals and others who are underserved by traditional payment mechanisms.
At present, the organisation is on a mission to revolutionise e-commerce using AI, and recently unveiled no fewer than six innovations that the company is piloting and bringing to market this year.
3. Samsung Pay
Samsung Pay, operated by South Korean company Samsung Electronics, is a mobile payment and digital wallet service. Users can make payments using compatible smartphones and other Samsung-made devices via the Samsung Wallet app. The platform stands out by enabling payments through NFC and MST, ensuring a smooth user experience, enhanced by tokenisation, which replaces sensitive card data with unique identifiers. Security measures include biometric authentication methods like fingerprint and iris scanning.
2. Google Pay
Formerly Google Wallet and Android Pay, Google Pay in its current form was born in 2018. It is compatible with Android devices and is used by 150m users for in-store, online and in-app purchases. Using NFC technology it enables contactless payments and supports both banks and card providers, such as Visa, MasterCard and American Express.
For security, Google Pay enhances security with a virtual account number instead of the actual credit card number during transactions. It also requires screen lock on devices and offers the ability to remotely wipe data if a device is lost.
Google Pay also supports peer-to-peer payments through Google Pay Send, allowing users to send money using email or phone numbers without fees.
1. Apple Pay
There are an estimated 1.4bn iPhone users in the world, totaling 21% of the world’s smartphone population. Apple Pay offers a secure and user-friendly payment method through Face ID or Touch ID. It is widely accepted in the U.S. and supports peer-to-peer payments.
Apple Pay has become one of the most ubiquitous means by which users leverage mobile payments, to quickly and efficiently make a payment without the need for a card or PIN.
In addition to this, in Autumn 2024 Apple will roll out ‘Tap to Cash’, as a part of iPhone’s iOS 18 update. ‘Tap to Cash’ does not even require users to have each others’ phone numbers. It can be used to effortlessly pay someone back at dinner, or buy something at a garage sale or local market. However, some have shared deep misgivings over the new feature.
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