Pay A Contact - Lloyds Banking Group

girl_withno_name

It looks like Lloyds Banking Group are introducing a new functionality across Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland called 'Pay A Contact'.

I've just registered and it looks like you confirm the phone number and bank account that you wish to list and then your phonebook contacts will be able to pay you (into that bank account) just by knowing your phone number.

Details here:
Lloyds Bank: http://www.lloydsbank.com/online-banking/mobile-banking/pay-a-contact.asp
Halifax: http://www.halifax.co.uk/aboutonline/why-bank-online/pay-a-contact/
Bank of Scotland: http://www.bankofscotland.co.uk/aboutonline/pay-a-contact/

Archi_Bald

It's the PAYM (pronounced pay-em) project
http://www.paym.co.uk/?gclid=CMDz0NnB4r0CFaQfwwodkhMASg

TSB, Lloyds, Halifax, BOS, Santander, Danske Bank, Barclays, Halifax, HSBC, Cumberland BS are the initial lot involved.

Lots more to join later: http://www.paym.co.uk/whos-involved

Though I believe you can link your mobile to just one single current account. Should be interesting to see what happens if you are registered with umpteen banks, lol.

Archi_Bald

The official FAQ: http://www.paymentscouncil.org.uk/mobile_payments/faqs/

girl_withno_name

In those FAQs it says:

Q12

Will I be able to register with more than one bank?

A12
Customers will nominate one account where any payments made to them will be received.
However, they will be able to use Paym to send money from any account held with a participating bank or building society.

This seems to make sense - it sounds like they're aiming to get it so your friend clicks "Pay [girl_withno_name]" and they're done. This wouldn't be the case if the friend was then faced with a list of umpteen bank accounts to choose from.

Of course, the FAQs could be referring to once account per bank... and I can't immediately see how they make sure one mobile number isn't linked to multiple accounts, but there could be a central database or similar?

innovate

girl_withno_name wrote: »

but there could be a central database

There is, they all use the same one. Otherwise it wouldn't work without specifying some sort of sort code and account number......

I gather there's a daily limit of some £250, which limits the usability of PAYM for me. Perhaps they'll lift the limit to FP limits one day, that would be good.

FireWyrm

First things first, you need to register your mobile number to the current account you want payments made into. But don’t worry, that’s easy.

What could possibly go wrong?

1) Phone stolen
2) mistyped friends number into the registration
3) Friend sends wrong amount to wrong person
4) Legitimate change of phone number and completely forget to update the system
5) Someone pays the wrong person because they have multiple 'pay my friends' set up.

Yeah, totally fool proof, cant see anything going wrong at all...

Niv

You can do this with PayPal too as I found out recently when someone paid me by using my mobile number!

leodis

FireWyrm wrote: »

What could possibly go wrong?

1) Phone stolen
2) mistyped friends number into the registration
3) Friend sends wrong amount to wrong person
4) Legitimate change of phone number and completely forget to update the system
5) Someone pays the wrong person because they have multiple 'pay my friends' set up.

Yeah, totally fool proof, cant see anything going wrong at all...

It's better than the current system, when you type in a phone number it will show you the name of the person you're paying. So it should be obvious if you mistype a number.