• By: Lloyds TSB, the first ser by

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  The start of next year will bring a new concept of mobile phone usage, as number of UK banks plan to launch a service which developers claim will allow customers to use their mobile phones much like a cash machines, but without handling the cash physically. Some proposed features will allow customers to move their money between accounts, view their balances, check transactions and top up their pay-as-you-go mobile phones.

  Lloyds already offers a text service to warn its customers when their balance falls within £50 of their limit, or if a payment such as a direct debit cannot be made.

  The service will be expanded to include alerts warning customers when balances are exceeded by a specified amount, allowing them to move any excess into a savings account. Weekly texts will also be provided to notify current account balances and the 6 most recent transactions.

  International security standards have been met with all services, providing customers access by use of a 6-digit code and an account name will be created by the customer on registering for the service. These security measures will be put into place to ensure that only authenticated users can gain access to bank account numbers and sort codes, and avoid credit card fraud.

  There are currently mobile phone banking services being used, for example Egg customers have been able to access their current balances and recent transactions, using their current Egg login details.

  In the past Egg provided a WAP service which did not prove to be particularly successful. The WAP service was fairly primitive, for example just allowing customers to check account balances. However, Consumers are now planning to provide customers with a greater control over their banking.

  Soon customers will have the means to move cash between accounts and to eachother simply using a text message. An Egg spokesman commented: "In the first wave it will be about balances but our aspiration - and we have the ability in place - is to move money between different accounts by mobile phone and send each other money by text message. You can see how the mobile phone could be a very interesting way of managing your money on the move." O2 is currently the only provider of mobile banking services, which means only one in four Egg customers will have the ability to access them.

  The spokesman said: "Our intention is not to limit ourselves to one provider - O2 were the first to launch this in the UK and it makes sense with them but that doesn't mean we will only have a service on O2."

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