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Bank of America announces dongle-based mobile payment processing service

Bank of America announces dongle-based mobile payment processing service

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bank of america mobile pay on demand
bank of america mobile pay on demand

Bank of America is the latest to get in on the mobile payment processing craze. All Things D reports that the bank is launching Mobile Pay on Demand — a new service that, with its requisite Square-inspired headphone dongle, will allow merchants to accept payment on mobile devices like tablets and smartphones when it launches on December 3rd. A free companion app will be available for both Android and iOS.

Like competitors Square and PayPal Here, Mobile Pay on Demand’s dongle will be free, and Bank of America will charge a 2.7 percent fee per transaction — the same rate as PayPal Here and a twentieth of a percentage point lower than Square. The latter is practically synonymous with credit card processing on mobile devices, handling $8 billion in payments annually, and recently announcing its first international expansion into Canada. While Bank of America's move into this market could certainly pay off, its VP of Strategy and Emerging Products, Trevor Rubel, acknowledged that it isn’t exactly breaking new ground, telling All Things D "I hate to come out with a commodity product, but every bank should have one."