[Symbiote]

Britain is shutting down their mobile payment system on 7 March: https://paym.co.uk/

The equivalent service is widely used in Scandinavia and some other countries. I can pay a friend or make a purchase in a small shop (or a big one) without needing to know bank account numbers.

[Accacin]

Yeah, this has been around forever and I don't know anyone who ever used it.

Bank transfers are free and fast here, if you gave me your bank account and sort code, you would have your money pretty much instantaneously.

In fact, when I buy goods from Facebook Marketplace, people mostly want a bank transfer and you can send the money whilst you're standing there, and they'll be able to confirm they got it before you leave.

I see your point about using phone numbers instead, but oddly I'd rather give someone my account number and sort code rather than my phone number :)

[Symbiote]

I used it years ago, though it was introduced to my circle of friends by a Swedish guy who worked in IT at a bank. The banks hardly advertised it, and soon after launching it they hid it away in the app/website interfaces.

We mostly already had each other's phone numbers, and the PayM process would confirm the name of the target account -- so there was confirmation the payment was going to the intended place years before this was added to Faster Payments.

When I'm here I use the Danish one (MobilePay) at least a couple of times a month. It's the default way to split the bill for a restaurant/bar/tickets among friends, to collect money for a gift for a colleague with a new baby, or to pay a stranger for second hand goods or their spare concert ticket. If there's the option, I'll use it to pay for goods and services online.

MobilePay has always been much easier to use.

1. Open app or touch NFC tag (when paying in a shop, in which case skip to 4).

2. Input amount

3. Choose previous recipient, choose phone number from phone contacts, type in a new phone number, or scan a QR code (typically a business).

4. Amount and recipient's name is shown, swipe to confirm.

5. Confirmation page shown (useful for strangers), recipient gets a notification.