Not content with trying to give consumers new and unconventional ways of paying for smartphones and Internet, T-Mobile now wants to go deeper into your wallet, literally. Its new Mobile Money service wants to redefine the way you use your money by doing away with transaction and overdraft fees.
T-Mobile estimates that Americans spend as much as $1,500 a year just to be able to cash their checks. Overdraft fees can accumulate and cost as much as $225 per year. Add to that withdrawal fees, maintenance fees, maintaining balances, and more. It is pretty much a strange system just to get access to and use money that you legitimately own in the first place.
Those fees might soon be a thing of the past, at least for T-Mobile customers. With Mobile Money, they can enjoy the benefits of a regular checking account without the costs mentioned previously. According to T-Mobile, some transaction fees can even be reduced to a very low price of none. Mobile Money users are issued a special T-Mobile Visa Prepaid card that they load with as much as the need without having to worry about maintenance balances. It can be used anywhere and for any purpose you would use a regular checking account, including depositing paychecks, making purchases, or withdrawing from over 42,000 in-network ATMs across the country.
T-Mobile has partnered with The Bancorp Bank to deliver the convenience of Mobile Money and, thanks to a license from Visa, it can also be used anywhere that accepts Visa debit cards. Interested users can now apply for a Mobile Money account online or through T-Mobile retail stores and, starting February, from Safeway stores in the US.
SOURCE: T-Mobile
