American Express on Thursday announced that U.S. cardholders will be able to use their phones to shop, tap, and pay for goods and services through the Isis Mobile Wallet mobile commerce service being rolled out later this year.
Isis, a joint venture by AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, uses Near Field Communications (NFC) technology for quick-and-easy payments via NFC-equipped phones and is being test-driven in Austin, Tex. and Salt Lake City, Utah before being introduced nationwide at a later date.
"Now our card members and merchants can benefit from the ease and convenience of a tap-and-go experience on a mobile phone and still enjoy the benefits, services, and support of American Express," said Josh Silverman, president of U.S. Consumer Services for American Express, in a statement. Users of Isis will enjoy "a secure way to pay and take advantage of loyalty programs," he added.
American Express was among the first group of credit card companies to jump on board with Isis when it was announced last year, the others being Visa, MasterCard, and Discover. Isis added Chase, Capital One, and Barclaycard to its stable in February.
Though Thursday's announcement seems like a bit of formality since the American Express network had already joined the Isis Mobile Commerce Platform, the credit card company did offer up specifics on which member accounts will be eligible for the Isis Mobile Wallet—namely, the U.S. Consumer, OPEN Small Business, and Serve cards.
Meanwhile, Visa this week initiated the beta launch of its own proprietary V.me digital wallet in the U.S. and Europe, the company said. V.me was originally slated to be introduced in the U.K., France, and Spain for starters, but apparently Visa changed its mind about that at some point and is offering the beta version of V.me though Buy.com in the U.S. as well.
Visa refers to its V.me program as a digital wallet, not a mobile digital wallet—a key distinction that Visa says differentiates the service from rivals like Google's Google Wallet . Visa claims that V.me will enable click-to-buy on a computer, touch-to-buy for a mobile browser, and wave-to-buy for physical point-of-sale NFC transactions.
Google Wallet, by contrast, has been primarily been oriented around mobile transactions. The search giant's mobile payment system does have one thing the others don't, however. It's offered through Sprint, the lone carrier that isn't participating in the Isis venture.
With additional reporting by Mark Hachman.