The New Obopay Service: Send Money to Anyone with a Cell Phone

How many times have you been out with a group of friends and needed to split the cost of a meal or movie tickets and you didn't have cash on you? It's a frustrating problem that many people experience every day and that a relatively new company called Obopay is setting out to solve. With the Obopay service, if you have a cell phone, you can send money via text message to anyone else with a cell phone. If Obopay is successful, it could become the premier way to pay in the 21^st century.

Here's how the service works: anyone with a cell phone can sign up for Obopay by visiting their website at http://www.obopay.com or by sending a text message to the short code 62729 (OBPAY). Once you have activated your Obopay account, you can add money to your account by linking a bank account, charging a major credit card, or purchasing a Green Dot Money Pak card at any number of participating retailers. Once you have money in your Obopay account, you are ready to start sending and receiving payments via your mobile phone.

If you are out and you need to send someone money (say, $5 for cab fare or $15 for a meal), simply text the word "send" along with the recipients cell phone number and the amount of the payment to the Obopay short code. Within moments, the recipient should receive a text message on their cell phone confirming your payment to them. If they are already an Obopay member, the money will be immediately available in their account. If they haven't signed up for Obopay yet, they will receive instructions on how to sign up for free and collect their money. It is free to receive money with the Obopay service, however you will pay a small fee of $0.25 every time you send money which I believe is reasonable.

You can withdrawal the balance of your Obopay account to any checking or savings account at anytime you wish. Obopay members also receive a debit MasterCard which allows them to spend money from their Obopay account at millions of locations or withdrawal cash at ATMs worldwide. Obopay transactions happen instantly so they cannot be reversed; this adds a certain amount of security and confidence to the Obopay service by assuring that those who pay you can't later decide to change their mind and challenge the payment as they can via other payment services such as PayPal.

More and more people are signing up for Obopay each day, and some "bricks-and-mortar" businesses like beauty salons and coffee shops have gotten into the action by accepting Obopay payments for their services. With the Obopay MasterCard, it really does make receiving money from friends and family easy and instant. I have completed several Obopay payments and they have all gone on without a hitch. I would highly recommend the Obopay service to anyone who wants to make financial arrangements with friends as quick and easy as they can possibly be.