O2 who are the British mobile phone unit of Spain’s Telefonica has finally launched a brand new service which is the first cash-card service from a mobile operator; this should give them a very good start for the promising mobile-money market.

This all new service gives you Visa pre-pay cards which will be issued in partnership with NatWest bank and can be loaded in stores or online and even used in shops that accept Visa debit cards, the bit we like is the fact you will receive SMS text alerts which will show you an account balance when you make a payment.

When it comes to mobile and banking there is stiff competition which is very healthy indeed, O2’s UK chief executive, Ronan Dunne said “The mobile phone and the wallet are starting to converge. We want to create a bridgehead into this market”.

Apparently mobile payments market has will have an estimated wealth of about $600 billion by 2013 with around 110 million users in Europe alone by 2014. The O2 Visa cards for O2 customers will be available next month and will be free to use in the UK, and this includes ATM cash machines.

Source – Reuters