Visa Debuts V.me Digital Wallet Service

It looks like just about all the credit card firms are jumping into the digital wallet realm trying to make it easier for consumers to rack up credit card debt and pay with branded debit cards. Visa has announced a new digital wallet service that is set to launch early in 2012. The new service will be called V.me and will apparently be able to offer PayPal some competition.

I think PayPal desperately needs some capable competition and hope V.me can provide that. The V.me service will not be limited to use with Visa credit cards only. People using the service will be able to place money into their V.me account using a Visa, MasterCard, or even their own bank accounts. The V.me account can then be used to pay for things online using a user name and a password.

Later in 2012 Visa will then roll out an expansion that allows the V.me accounts to be used to pay for things at the register using NFC tech. That sounds pretty good. The service digital wallet is in closed beta testing right now. I don't see any way to just get the funds back off the card at ATMs, and to fight PayPal that needs to be a capability. This sounds like a competitor to Google Wallet as well.

[via AllthingsD]