M-wallet: Billguard Adds PFM Tools to Apple’s Passbook
- Apple’s Passbook is about to include Billguard to its list of partners. The fraud detection tool will then be added to the already available loyalty offers.
- Billguard’s option, called The Business Platinium, is free and provides its users with the ability to link their US debit or credit card to Passbook.
- The Business Platinium lets them visualise all their card transactions on their phone and adds in a few PFM features (highest amounts spotted, recurrent payments, etc.).
- Billguard also includes an alert-based fraud prevention system to let users know whenever “suspicious” transactions are detected (hidden fees, double charges, etc.).
- With Billguard, Passbook makes another move towards integrating financial services in its once “pass-only” dedicated wallet (tickets, discount vouchers, reward cards, etc.). Passbook might then become a new genre of PFM tool gathering all kinds of transactions (payments and loyalty) from retailers (Sephora or Starbucks for instance) and financial institutions (American Express for now and, maybe, at some point, banks?).
- Since its launch last May, Passbook has grown incrementally: one might think that its next logical step could be the integration of a payment solution.
- Like other Apple products, Passbook benefits from the charismatic image of the industry giant, accounting for its success as other relatively similar solutions (FidAll or FidMe for instance) took time to take off. As Apple announces the availability of its iPhone 5 and iOS 6, the rewards specialist Gyft (see “Gyft Compounding Gift Cards on Mobile Devices” in this edition) has just announced the integration of its loyalty app in Passbook.
- An app called PassWallet has even been crafted to bring support for Passbook to the Android platform, again reasserting its popularity.