The wave of the future is at hand

An article in Baseline Magazine reports on proximity payments.

Big retailers can speed up the payment process˜and pocket the money they used to pay Visa and MasterCard in the process. Generally, Visa and MasterCard charge retailers about 1.9% of the total purchase for debit and credit transactions across their network. MasterCard charges less for "quick payment" merchants, like fast food and movie chains, but won't say how much. By comparison, Speedpass charges a flat rate of about 20 cents per wireless transaction. So, when a consumer chooses Speedpass instead of a credit card on a $100 transaction, the merchant puts $1.70 back in his pocket.