Digital wallets hold the promise that some day technology will remove the need for carrying around money, plastic cards, or anything other than our cell phones.
With the launch of Apple Pay a little over a year ago, mobile customers and businesses are finally starting to get used to paying for goods and services by allowing customers waving their phones over a payment terminal.
Today, UGO Wallet, the self-described Canadian open digital wallet, is announcing the release of a peer-to-peer money transfer service. The service is called UGO Pay, and will initially be available in beta. The main function of UGO Pay will give users the ability to quickly and securely send and receive money from other users, but that’s not the only new feature.
Customers are able to load money from Visa debit cards, or Visa or Mastercards, onto UGO Pay. Transfers are free and are sent via text message to any Canadian mobile phone number. Once accepted, the balance of the transfer can be kept in UGO Pay, cashed out, or used to make purchases (from approved vendors).
As the platform is currently in beta, users can expect new vendors and features to be released in the next few months across iOS, Android and BlackBerry. UGO Wallet already stores customer loyalty cards, in addition to letting users store electronic gift cards securely.