Students Are Leary of Mobile Payments

A new study found that college students are still not sure about mobile payments. The April survey from Balance Innovations showed that 42% of the 2,503 students who responded would “probably not” or would “definitely not” use mobile payments.

Another 42% said that using mobile payments would depend on the retailer or purchase, while just 16% said they use mobile payments all the time.

“Because they are frontrunners of technology and avid smartphone users, we anticipated higher interest in the use of mobile payment among these 18- to 24-year-olds,” said Steve Rempel, president and CEO of Balance Innovations.

The survey also found that 21% of men said they would likely switch to mobile payments when they become widely available, compared to just 12% of the female students who responded. Students with majors such as accounting or business administration were more likely to use mobile payments, while students in the Midwest were less likely to use their phones to pay for purchases than students on either coast.

Facebook Testing Mobile Payments

Facebook is testing a mobile payment platform that will let users pay for online purchases by logging in with their Facebook credentials. The platform is being developed as an in-house project for the social media giant.

The biggest obstacle facing the project is users’ distrust, Denee Carrington, a senior analyst at Forrester Research, told Information Week. Her research found that just 4% of U.S. consumers trust Facebook with a mobile digital wallet.

After it addresses privacy and security concerns, Facebook will need to focus on user experience, according to Jordan McKee of the research firm Yankee Group.

“Since Facebook profits from user data, the concept of offering payment credentials in addition to personal information may not sit well with many,” he said. “Facebook must also put tremendous emphasis on the user experience. If they don’t find Facebook’s offering to be intuitive, easy, and seamless, it will gain little traction and potentially dilute its brand.”

Draper U. Accepting Bitcoin Payments

Draper University, San Mateo, CA, bills itself as an “unconventional world-class boarding school,” so it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that it would accept unconventional forms of payment.

The school, which already allows barter, equity, profit sharing, and advertising tradeout as forms of payment, is now accepting bitcoin for tuition fees. The school has already processed its first bitcoin payment for the summer session.

Bitcoin is cryptocurrency, peer-to-peer electronic cash created and transferred through a computer or smartphone without an intermediate financial institution. End users solve hash algorithms to generate the virtual coins, which in the case of bitcoins are valued at around $100 per coin, according to a report in Campus Technology.

“Some of the most forward-looking entrepreneurs are active bitcoin traders. At Draper University of Heroes, we accept bitcoin payment of tuition because it is a promising currency with appreciating value,” Tim Draper, founder of Draper University, said in a prepared statement. “For the time being, we still accept dollars, too.”

Credit Cards Try to Elbow Out PayPal

If you click on a link to a story on the All Things D blog about Visa’s new digital wallet, you may first see an ad for PayPal. That just underscores how crowded the digital payments space is getting these days.

Visa’s wallet, dubbed V.me, has been in beta for about a year while the company signed up a couple dozen big-name e-commerce merchants, along with some 50 banks and credit unions. The latter are important because Visa is counting on the bank issuers to market the service to their customers and possibly incorporate the registration service into their own e-banking sites.

V.me reportedly works a lot like PayPal, allowing consumers the option of preloading it with cash or tying it to a credit card, even a competitor such as MasterCard, American Express, or Discover.

That’s just one e-wallet, though. Back in May 2012, MasterCard launched its PayPass Wallet Services. American Express came out with its Serve online payment service in March 2011.

These services have the potential to become a big hit with the parents of college students. Parents are understandably nervous about handing off a credit or debit card to a young adult who’s just starting to learn how to manage money. E-wallets enable parents to easily underwrite college purchases while maintaining some control and avoiding worry that their progeny’s card may get lost or stolen.