Mobile payments: American Express launches the Serve service

American Express has now crossed over into PayPal’s territory by announcing their online Serve payment service. Mobile and from person to person, this service will provide numerous payment options in a single account.

After being hailed as a promising service for a long time, mobile payments are starting to finally take off with the arrival of the NFC technology (Near Field Communications). Other services allowing you to make transactions from your mobile already exist though, like PayPal which offers mobile applications for account to account exchanges.

Now heading in the same direction, American Express has announced their Serve service, a Web and mobile platform which allow you to conduct transactions for purchases or person to person money exchanges.


Web and mobile
Serve is accessible from iOS and Android applications, from the Web or via Facebook with the service providing flexibility for various digital payments grouped under a single Serve account.

American Express is currently developing Serve to become an online payment option available for purchases. The consumer will simply need to create a Serve account which can be funded from a bank account, credit card or money transfer from another Serve account.

It will be possible to create sub-accounts for specific needs and to control spending profiles. The Serve platform is currently only available in the United States (it will be launched internationally later in the year) and has been developed through the acquisition of Revolution Money in 2010.