Mobile Gift Certificates Making Plastic Cards Outdated

The days of using a plastic gift certificate may soon become outdated.

Companies like Starbucks and Target are making it possible to flash a mobile gift card and pay for your purchase in a blink of an eye. The gift cards can be purchased online or in the store.

Once the gift card is purchased all one has to do is create a gift card account on a smartphone and upload the gift card information. According to CBS, a person can receive a text message of a barcode that can be used to shop immediately or save for future use.

The gift cards are password encrypted to deter it from getting used by the wrong person. One of the drawbacks would be that one would have to be more careful of losing their phone.

For 4-years, traditional gift cards were the No. 1 sought after gift. Some people might not want to carry all those plastic cards in their wallet; this could serve as the perfect option. The only pre-requirement is a smartphone.

Mobile gift cards are also directly tied into the blossoming mobile payments infrastructure. Multiple ventures have been or will be launched within the coming few years.

Recently Google launched their Google Wallet, which is backed by Citibank, MasterCard, and Sprint. Currently the technology is only available for the Nexus S 4G, but is claimed to be able to work on upcoming Android phones.

Another major venture that is being launched in 2012 is Isis. Isis is a major payment network that is partnered with Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, American Express, Discover, MasterCard, etc.

With all these companies adapting, technology paying with mobile gift cards will only get more easy and accessible.