T-Mobile announces Mobile Money financing service

Today T-Mobile has announced a new personal finance service called Mobile Money, which lets customers store and manage their money, thus pushing the boundaries of the what defines a mobile carrier.

Starting today, T-Mobile will offer the Mobile Money app with a T-Mobile pre-paid Visa card. The card is available from t-mobilemoneyservices.com, and from T-Mobile retail locations. With the card, which can be obtained by even non T-Mobile customers, there is $0 purchase fees, no monthly maintenance fee, no fee to reload the card in a T-Mobile store, and $0 withdrawal fee on ATMs coast to coast ($2 charge for out of network transactions).

With direct deposit, you can get access to your tax refund faster as it will be sent straight to your T-Mobile pre-paid card. And you can send up to $100 a day and $500 a month to another pre-paid card with the receiver's mobile number and the last four digits of their T-Mobile card.

T-Mobile stresses that it is not a bank, but does want to eliminate those nasty fees that the banks are famous for. T-Mobile's CMO, Mike Sievert, says that the average family can save $225 a year in overdraft charges and $1500 a year using a check cashier to cash payroll checks. The pre-paid card will also be available at Safeway stores starting next month.

T-Mobile announces a new pre-paid card that works with an app to help consumers save money

It should be interesting to see if the other major U.S. carriers follow. Even more interesting is seeing which "pain point" T-Mobile and its CEO attack next.


source: T-Mobile