Paying With Your Mobile Phone: What's That Going to Cost?

Interest is growing around the idea of using your mobile phone to pay for goods and services. Visa recently announced its intention to let people transfer cash to one another using their cell phones, and software developers are working on programs that would turn your phone into a kind of virtual wallet you could use to pay for just about anything.

For people who think carrying around a wallet full of credit cards is archaic, or for those who don't want to keep large sums of cash in their pocket, the idea is tantalizing: Just wave your phone in the direction of a payment transmission machine and walk out of the store with your purchases.