A Wallet-less Future? Verizon Partners with Payfone for Mobile Payments

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Verizon Wireless is teaming up with mobile transaction service Payfone to bring a new mobile payment system to customers. The service will work across smartphones, tablets and PCs, and will charge purchases to participating customers’ Verizon statements or through their usual bank accounts, supplementing a partnership with mobile wallet service Isis to bring cashless transactions to the masses.

“We approach the mobile payments arena from a customer’s perspective,” says Verizon Wireless marketing vice president Greg Haller in a press release. “As we move forward, the most important goals will be security, privacy and simplicity. Through our relationship with Payfone, we will be able to quickly offer value to our customers by offering them greater choice and a simple, safe and secure purchasing experience when shopping online from their smartphones, tablets and PCs.”

(More on TIME.com: The Perils of Mobile Payments)

Payfone was founded in 2008 and has seen backing from companies such as American Express, BlackBerry Partners Fund and more. Their goal, aside from creating a one-click payment platform, is to provide safe and secure transactions for customers on the go.

“We tie the SIM card, device ID and location to each account, so when a mobile number is used on a different phone or in a different location – we know,” says the company’s website.

The announcement reflects the latest in a trend among wireless carriers to usher customers into a new wallet-less era where transactions are carried out electronically. Late last month, Google unveiled their own Android app, Google Wallet, which promises a lot of the same payment functionality while syncing their newly rolled-out Google Offers system to Citibank checking accounts. Visa, MasterCard, and American Express are also building steam in the mobile payment space.

(More on TIME.com: Mobile Payments Are Coming — But When?)

While combining phone and wallet to consolidate the amount of daily baggage a person lugs around is an admirable undertaking, the keys to getting these initiatives to actually work will be A) to build a secure and reliable infrastructure for transactions, and B) convincing skeptical customers that their accounts will actually be safe — which is easier said than done.

Verizon hasn’t yet disclosed when we can expect the new service to launch.

More on TIME.com:

Google Wallet is Coming: Don’t Be Afraid

Is This the Beginning of the End for QR?

Has Android’s Lead Over Apple Stopped Growing?