“Mobile wallet will not happen just because you can pay with your phone. It will happen when the value-add far exceeds what is available with plastic, and there is an end-to-end integrated checkout process.”

That is how Schwark Satyavolu, CEO of Truaxis, now a Mastercard company, put it. We agree. In fact, we believe that the mobile wallet meets all of Satyavolu’s standards for mass adoption. Value-add far exceeds plastic? Check. End-to-end integrated checkout process? Check again.

Let us consider PayPal’s mobile wallet solution, which launched in earlier this year. PayPal’s wallet offers consumers the following benefits:

• discounts and special offers delivered to the smartphone;
• purchases at local PayPal-enabled  stores made in advance via the PayPal app;
• storage of receipts; automatic refunds via virtual currency;
• easy-to-use history of activities; past purchases can be stored as “favorites” to save time on purchases down the road.

We could go on.

And soon PayPal will offer the additional advantage of floating the payment for five days. The seller is paid instantly, but the buyer will have five days to fund the purchase from any card or account linked to his digital wallet.

Do the value of these features exceed those from plastic payment cards? We think the answer is check, check, checkmate.