Citi and Obopay pilot person-to-person mobile payment service

It was back in July of last year when we first posted about Obopay and Citi’s partnership. Now Citi announced that it has launched a pilot program to provide mobile person-to-person money transfer service to all its customers in the U.S., with a focus on Boston, Chicago, Maryland, Philadelphia, and New Jersey.

Citibank customers participating in the pilot program can activate and connect the mobile service to their Citibank checking account or setup up a new mobile payment account at citi.obopay.com. Then, using their phone’s Web browser, SMS text messaging or the downloadable mobile application, customers can send and receive money nearly instantly needing only the mobile phone numbers of friends and family members.

According to the official release, this is the first time that a real-time, person-to-person mobile money transfer service with the ability to link directly to a bank account has been offered in the United States. Hopefully, people will dig the idea — after all, it does sound convenient!