It appears that although Near Field technology is nothing new to the mobile arena, NFC is the next big thing when it comes to smartphones. We’ve already heard rumours that Apple may or may not be considering NFC for the iPhone, and now it looks like Google has joined in the NFC craze for Android.

According to an article over on The Telegraph, by way of the Wall Street Journal, Google is to team with both Citigroup and MasterCard with a view to enabling Android smartphone users pay for purchases via NFC tech.

According to the WSJ… “The planned payment system would allow Google to offer retailers more data about their customers and help them target ads and discount offers to mobile-device users near their stores. Google isn’t expected to get a cut of the transaction fees.”

Apparently Google is expected to roll out the mobile contact-less payment system sometime this year, as for the risk factor apparently NFC isn’t particularly vulnerable.

Personally, call me old fashioned but the card in my wallet suits me just fine, if I leave my smartphone at home I always have my card in my wallet, and the added bonus with a card is it fits nicely into ATMs unlike smartphones.

I probably don’t have a great deal of trust in mobile payment schemes and much prefer the old tried and tested route of a card in my wallet and cash in my pocket, what about you?