“Today the USPTO published an Apple patent application (spotted by UnwiredView) that ventures a little farther afield than most, and describes a mobile banking concept that is truly innovative, which could essentially turn iTunes into a micro-lending bank,” Darrell Etherington reports for TechCrunch.
“The patent outlines a system whereby a user would post requests for small amounts of cash using their iPhone, which other nearby users could respond to to provide some quick funds when there’s no ATM nearby,” Etherington reports. “The lending party would be paid the full amount from an account (which, while not named specifically, could easily be an iTunes account), which would first deduct that total, plus a small service fee, from the iTunes account of the person making the cash request.”
Etherington reports, “So, in a real world example, I could open this ‘Cash Transfer Application,’ type that I need $20 and that I’m at the Starbucks at 4th and Main, enter a search range and send it out. Then, anyone within that radius also using the app would get the request, and be able to volunteer to walk over to my location and provide me with the amount requested on the spot.”
More info in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Hmmm, disrupting the banking industry’s ATM monopoly. Good morning, Wall Street.
It sounds like a good idea but in reality , I don’t think it is an ideal way .
@Raymond – I agree.
Who in the world would respond to an iTunes request to ‘bring your cash to me’ when they can’t verify the identity of the person making the request? Have robbers taken a holiday?
Better to equip consumers and retailers with an app that allows direct payment rather than bringing third parties (with cash on hand) into the transaction. Fingerprint recognition in the iPhone 5s would make mobile payments far more secure and therefore a far more appealing way of doing business.
If it’s going thru the iTunes account, it’s still a transaction against a credit card. Not exactly cutting out the bank now, is it? Until we can eat music, I don’t see this as making a big dent in the fees collected by banks and merchant account handlers.
No, not all the time. I only use iTunes cards, and have never had a credit card transaction on my iTunes account. Have had it for many years. 🙂
Obviously both of you didnt get it.
I don’t get it either. WHY would I borrow money like this? Why wouldn’t I use a credit card? Why would I lend someone money when I don’t know them? Am i really going to walk over to someone and hand them $20 (what’s my motivation to lend them money?- surely any fee someone pays for borrowing $20 from won’t be worth my effort to track them down to give them the money)? What guarantees are there? A LOT of unanswered questions…
Honestly, this does not sound reasonable in the first world. Now, in second/third world countries, this might make some sense (believe it or not, you still [yes, today in 2013] can’t use a credit card in Germany anywhere except restaurants and hotels [i.e., tourist traps])….
The lender gets credited instantly from itunes plus commision. He doest have to track anyone.
He has to track the borrow down in order to make the physical transfer of currency. Who’s to say the borrower (or someone else with the app who would have been alerted to the request for funds) isn’t waiting to club you on the head for the rest of your stash. This app sounds like it’s basically a high tech version of “the cry of an injured animal,” predators will home-in on it for sure. Fail.
perhaps this would better work in a “friend” or relative situation. You know how many times you lend money to your brother and he never pays you back? Or a friend borrows money from you and you never see a dime, and you ask for it back , and get no reply. That has happened many times to my friend who gets burned time after time. This would be a better way for him to help and hopefully he may actually see his money being returned. Just my 2 cents…
The person asking for me has itunes credit. He gives u credit plus commision in return of your cash. Its genious.
Who stands as ultimate guarantor to credit default? You? Apple? How is this better than extending cash through a credit card which will have vetted you beforehand for creditworthiness.
Here in the UK, we don’t pay transaction charges for ATM withdrawals. If we take 100 pounds out of an ATM, we get exactly 100 pounds deducted from our account.
The principle mentioned in the patent wouldn’t work here, or anywhere else where ATMs are free to use.
Once I was staying with American friends in Phoenix and they were rather annoyed to see that I took US dollars out of my UK account via their local Wells Fargo ATM without having to pay a service charge, but they had to pay a fee whenever they used it, even though they had an account at that branch. I even showed them the on-line bank statement afterwards because they were convinced there must be a hidden fee. The exchange rate quoted was the normal GBP/USD tourist rate at that time.
Can I get a date this way?
So this involves walking over and handing someone cash? Nobody sees how this could go wrong or what a PR nightmare this could turn into?
The same PR nightmare it is for visa or mastercard when you go into wallgreens and ask for cashback. Except now cash can be provided by your server at a restaurant or your neighbor at the beach or wallgreens itself. Everyone is s bank. iBank
i think what is ripe to be disrupted is sending money abroad. the fees are outrageous and the process is complicated. time for someone to innovate. i think even only taking a 1-2% cut from the money that is send around the world every day would be a huge billion dollar business for apple.
In a way, this sounds like Sharia, the Islamic practice of money lending based on individual reputations.
Except for the part of the service fee. And who gets that fee? Apple, and their desire for the 30% Does any of it go to the person providing the cash?
This is not so obvious to all of us as it may be to Apple. But once Apple disrupts this……banking thing…… everyone will be shouting from the rooftops how obvious it is and Apple deserves no credit (pardon the pun).
This is misdirection…Apple’s creating a payment service
I do think that there is more to it than this. They aren’t going to give away its additional possibilities, either that or they feel there is potential in the concept and want to protect it while they work out what it is.
This makes sense.
It’s a *patent*.
It won’t really disrupt ATMs, except for the ones that you see in areas where merchants don’t take cash.
Essentially this concept turns anyone with an iTunes account into a merchant and what can be purchased is literally anything including “cash back” or for that matter just plain cash.
If I go to a street vendor and want to buy something, I can send him the money via my iPhone and it goes into his iTunes account. No cash is needed, no NFC, no card, no card reader, just boom with the iPhone. The vendor can see the transaction on his iPhone (or iPad, or Mac or PC).
I could go to another vendor and that vendor could be like “duh, I have uh, Android and uh, iTunes is the suxor, huh huh…” . Well, I’d probably go elsewhere, but assuming that vendor has something I *must* have, I could submit a transaction request for cash. Anyone walking up could provide me with cash and get iTunes credit. Their incentive would probably be a percentage.
Of course there are all kinds of safety and security issues around this that would need to be figured out, but again, this isn’t a press release for a new service that’s being launched.
This is a patent.
Who gets the cut – Apple or the dude/-ette lending the cash?
I’m thinking that this is probably just one part of an unannounced feature that may or may not be coming to iPhones. Maybe they’re planning a full-featured alternative to Square and this is just one aspect of it.
Personally, I could see this being useful if stores also supported it, as it could increase their foot traffic. They, instead of getting iTunes credit might have a special iTunes account in which they get paid actual money.
Bundle this into Passbook as a method of paying for goods and services and while it may not be the killer feature, it will be an Apple-exclusive feature. Let other companies work on their alternatives.
Or maybe it’s complete BS to make the competitors waste time over thinking this, just as this thread is.
Not that I agree or disagree with anyone. Thinking too hard on Friday’s gives me a rash.
this is so ridiculous… sorry steve for all the shits they are doing to apple…