Vodafone, Moneygram hook up to create mobe money MONSTER

A deal struck between Vodafone and Moneygram has added 334,000 international agents from whom you can send money to Vodafone's M-Pesa. This will allow migrant workers in around 200 countries to send funds home to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Fiji, India, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, South Africa and Tanzania. There …

[Kevin Fairhurst]

Will be a long time coming to UK...

Saw this kind of thing about ten years ago and I just happened to be working for a major UK mobile phone provider at the time. They also had the ability to send credit to other phones, so that you could top up and then share your credit with friends/family. I suggested that we do something similar to the head of mobile payments. Apparently, to do this in the UK we would have had to have registered as a bank, with all the extra costs/paperwork that entails, which is why nothing happened. The only people that I can see offering something similar in the UK are Barclays with their PingIt app...

[Gordon 10]

Re: Will be a long time coming to UK...

Yea - I have it on good authority thats why no mobe operator with the possible exception of o2 has done it in the UK. I think but am not sure that O2 piggyback on Barclays license somehow.

Bank license means holding extra capital reserves and lots of onerous financial reporting.

[Anonymous Coward]

A Kenyan living in Luton can now send money

to a friendly insider in Nigeria, to receive 10% of that multi-bilion-££££ Vodafone hoard, all from a comfort of his mobe.

[Tom Chiverton 1]

Hang on. I show someone a *picture on my phone* and they hand over money to me ? There must be more steps here, right ?

[Nuno]

the receiving end of a moneygram transaction only have to suply a transaction code and the receiver's name

[Stuart 16]

Nearly 5% cost to send a payment, another reason Bitcoin needs to survive.

[Anonymous Coward]

Giving help where it's needed most

I would love to be able to anonymously send a funds directly to an M-Pesa user as a charitable contribution. I'm tired of aid agencies (I'm looking at you Red Cross) inserting themselves in the middle only to find they take a huge cut of anything you give. Makes 5% seem like a bargain. Give me a way to send even just a small amount to someone needy, (at random is OK) with an M-Pesa account and let me make their day a little better.