Mobile Wallet Ease: Tap and Pay with Your Phone

Have you added your Core Bank debit card to your smartphone’s mobile wallet yet?

With the popularity of digital technology rising, it’s important to take a closer look at what a digital mobile wallet has to offer. A mobile wallet is a software application that allows you to hold many of the same things you would keep in a physical wallet, including payment information such as debit or credit cards, gift cards, coupons, airline tickets, sports tickets, and more. The most popular mobile wallets are Apple Pay®, Google Pay™, and Samsung Pay™. These mobile wallets come standard with your smartphone. Users will also have different mobile wallet options to choose from depending on which part of the globe they live in.

Mobile wallets are one of the safest and most convenient ways to make payments today. You don’t need to have your card on hand to pay with your Core Bank accounts. Our debit cards are compatible with mobile wallets so you can make secure payments with your phone, tablet, or smartwatch.

Using a Digital Wallet

People perform many tasks from their mobile phones, including transferring money to another person and paying bills. Using a digital wallet makes sense! Each digital wallet comes with its own set of unique features, but many wallets will allow you to do some combination of the following:

• Store credit and debit card information to make payments.
• Make transactions online or in-person with the click of a button.
• Send and receive cash with friends, family, or employers.
• Store cash and sometimes earn interest on deposits.
• Link a financial account to send and receive money.
• Hold non-payment information like concert tickets, passes, coupons, rewards points, and more.
• Send, receive, and store cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin.

Benefits of a Digital Wallet

Using a digital wallet comes with many possible benefits, including easy access, convenience, and security when making transactions. Digital wallets provide people easy access to send and receive money without having to set up a financial account. This opens the doors of the financial system to many people who would not have had access before.

Digital wallets can also be straightforward to use, with most having mobile applications that allow you to make transactions online or in-person within seconds. Many merchants allow individuals to pay with the simple tap of their phone, specifically when using digital wallets like Apple or Google Pay.

Digital wallets are generally viewed as a more secure way to store payment information than a physical wallet. With a physical wallet, if you lose it, it’s gone. If there was cash inside the wallet, you can usually assume you won’t be getting it back, and you’ll likely have to cancel all the credit cards you had in there as well. On the other hand, a digital wallet is typically protected using either a unique passcode or authentication on your mobile device. If a cell phone is lost containing a digital wallet, someone would need to be able to unlock your phone and digital wallet application—both of which can be protected—to have access to the information.

Additionally, most digital wallet providers encrypt or tokenize financial information when making a transaction, meaning it is more challenging for hackers to steal credit or debit card information.

Considerations When Using a Digital Wallet

Despite the many benefits of using a digital wallet, one of the drawbacks is the potential for digital wallet providers to track your purchase information. Companies have an incentive to collect data on your spending history, purchases, likes, and dislikes. Each provider will have different rules around what type of information they can collect and possibly sell, so it can be valuable to read the fine print when setting up a digital wallet.

Something else to consider when using a digital wallet is that not all merchants can accept payment from a digital wallet. Some businesses choose to only accept cash or checks, and others that will accept cards may not accept payment from a digital wallet. However, over time, this may become less of an issue as digital wallets become more widely used and accepted.

In the end, deciding whether to use a digital wallet and which wallet to use often comes down to the distinct features you’re looking for, the type of device you have, and where you live.

From being able to securely and instantly access your accounts to depositing checks remotely, Core Bank’s online and mobile banking options let you manage your accounts from anywhere.