There seems to be a few companies that I’m continuously hearing more and more about in the interwebs.  One such company is one called Obopay. If I had to describe it in one sentence, it would be that Obopay is like Paypal but with using your phone, instead of your email address/Paypal account.  Obopay has the tagline - "Money Transfer by Cell Phone or Web".

I signed up for an account today, received a text message to my cell, activated my account, and currently I’m in the process of waiting to confirm my bank account with a series of micro deposits, that I need to enter into Obopay to confirm my bank account.

Right now I can see this very useful, especially when I end up at a merchant or am at a vending machine and dry out of cash and cannot use plastic. I borrow some money, text a message to my friend, and everyone is happy.

The fee to transfer money recently increased from .10 to .25 a transaction, but note that this is for any transaction amount, there is not a transaction fee + % fee of transaction amount model.

I really don’t know how many merchants currently accept Obopay, but I suspect that this will be a popular payment option to certain market segments of consumers. Especially that it can be linked to either a bank account or credit/debit card.

After my bank account is confirmed I plan to use this when I can.