Need to check your bank balance whilst in Tesco? Need to buy cinema tickets whilst on the bus? Well now you can with MoBank which looks to be the first real contender for universal UK mobile banking.  At the moment the app is only available on the iPhone (and iPod Touch connected by Wi-Fi) for now but they have plans to release app on other platforms soon. All the major UK banks have been covered though although at present you can only register one card at present.

So what can you do with it?

The app allows you to check your bank balance and recent transactions on the move so you don’t have to go to a cash machine or login to your internet banking. MoBank also allow you to use the app as a quick and easy payment device for any of their partner merchants. At the moment this s limited to Interflora, Vue, Thorntons, Waterstone’s, Just the Flight, The Trainline, Game, Deliverance, TicketWeb and Domino’s with the promise of many more coming onboard soon.

Pricing

MoBank have put into place a simple pricing structure; pay as you go (PAYG) and a lifetime unlimited use plan. With PAYG you pay £2.50 for every 5 transactions and £1 per month for one or more balance lookups. Therefore it seems a no-brainer to go with the £15 one off payment for the unlimited plan.

Security

My initial concern was one of security but MoBank do well do allay fears on their website.

• Card details protected by 4 digit PIN
• No payment information or PIN is stored on the phone
• All transactions occur on merchants websites
• If you don’t sign in for three months then MoBank will delete your details
• “bank-grade security and compliant with Payment Card Industry standards and ISO27001 for Information Security Management. A Digicert 256-bit SSL certificate is used to secure all transmitted data.”

It is also reassuring that it is a paid service because it not only gives MoBank more accountability but also allows them to invest in improving and evolving

Is it going to take off?

With the promise of lots more partner merchants and functionality (e.g. topups) the future looks very promising.

I have seen very little publicity for MoBank (apart from the occasional Spotify advert) but this is definitely my top tip to watch over the next few months because with the right marketing it could be huge. However, there may be some downsides. Do I really want to know how little money I have whilst out on the town?

More information on their website

Listen to any track for free right now. Surely this is either highly illegal or too good to be true. I couldn’t believe it either until I was sent an invite to participate in the private beta of Spotify, the online music service. With it’s iTunes like interface searching and playing music is only a simple search away.

Is there really such a thing as a free lunch?

Like a radio station Spotify pays royalties to the artist for each song that is playing through the service. At the moment the revenue model to pay for this (and hopefully make a profit!) is based on adverts. Every 20 minutes of playing tracks you are met with an audio advert from Spotify’s partners. In the early days these have been quite annoying with only a couple of partners on board. As more partners are added the adverts seem to get more bearable and is a very painless way of getting free music.

The other option is for users to subscribe to Spotify Premium for £9.99 per month. This will allow them to listen to unlimited music advert free.

Shaky beginnings

During the beta programme there has been a couple of wobbles in the service due to record label and international restrictions which have lead to a large tranche of music being removed from the service.

The other high profile event was the reports that the Swedish based company had had a massive security breach before Christmas and users login details have been lost.

What next?

Spotify is starting to get some high profile publicity including some interest by the BBC [LINK] so it is only a matter of time before it takes off. I believe that Spotify is really going to revolutionise the way we listen to music and will be the biggest step forward since the mp3.

Can’t wait to get involved?  Spotify is still in beta but you can sign up at their site. The music catalogue is growing rapidly and hopefully the full release will be soon, so watch this space!