“PayNearMe” at 6,000 7-Eleven Stores, Supports Mobile Money Transfer and Payments

PayNearMe offers a take on mobile payments that is more a “virtual cash” play than anything else, likely to be most successful with consumers who prefer paying cash to third parties, especially when buying online digital goods or make other payments, and do not own or cannot get, credit or debit cards. That could include teenagers and others. See http://www.paynearme.com/press_releases/press_release_11_16_10_B


Using only their mobile phones and the new, free PayNearMe Card, consumers can complete transactions with a growing list of payees, including Amazon.com and Facebook, Progreso Financiero, MOL AccessPortal (MOL), m-Via, Lexicon Marketing, LLC, Adknowledge’s Super Rewards, Money to Go and SteelSeries.

More than 50 percent of U.S. adults prefer cash for payment and a quarter of U.S. households lack credit or debit cards. That creates the opportunity for secure and convenient ways to complete remote transactions with cash.


The PayNearMe card is one such solution. When buying something on online site SteelSeries, for example, the consumer would go through the regular check-out process, but instead of clicking Visa or MasterCard, they would choose PayNearMe.  See http://emoney.allthingsd.com/20101223/how-one-company-wants-to-make-cash-cool-again/?mod=ATD_skybox


Then he or she would print out a barcode and bring it to any 7-Eleven location. The clerk scans the barcode and collects the cash. As soon as the balance is paid, SteelSeries will be notified and the item will be shipped.

If a user does not have a printer, or is making a money transfer, users go to a 7-Eleven where plastic PayNearMe cards–similar to gift cards–are available.


They call customer service and say the code on the back of the card, how much money they’d like to transfer and where they’d like to transfer it. The 7-Eleven clerk then scans the card, collects the cash and prints out a receipt with all the legally required information.


Unlike gift or prepaid cards, PayNearMe Cards simply enable mobile cash payments in any amount from $.01 to $1,000. There’s no stored value, no hidden fees, no unused balances.


In some ways, PayNearMe is sort of a mobile “money transfer” service, in part a micro-payments service.