NTT DoCoMo offers phone-to-phone overseas mobile remittance service

NTT DoCoMo of Japan will be the country’s pioneer mobile carrier to offer a convenient mobile service that will enable overseas remittances, and that includes phone-to-phone money transfers all the way to the Philippines. This will be made possible when it rolls out DoCoMo Money Transfer this coming July 7th. All remittances to the Philippines (as to why they picked that particular country, we will explain it in the next paragraph) is possible courtesy of an i-mode-compatible DoCoMo phones to SMART Money, where the latter is a reloadable payment card operated by Smart Communications. All beneficiaries are able to confirm receipt promptly by accessing their SMART Money card through a Smart mobile phone.

In the opposite direction, funds also can be sent from an i-mode phone in Japan to another beneficiary’s account at a participating bank or financial institution in Brazil, South Korea or China (apart from the Philippines, of course) – as all four countries comprise of 80% of all foreign residents in Japan. There are plans to introduce this model in other countries, with smartphone users being able to use the service in the near future. All remittances will cost roughly $12.39 after conversion, making it far more affordable compared to a host of other overseas remittance services.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: docomo, ntt, ntt docomo