Mobile phones could soon replace credit cards for store payments following the launch of a range of handsets.
South Korea's three telecom giants, major credit card companies and several banks have been testing new technology that will enable users to pay for everything from food to petrol with a mobile.
Cho Eun-sang, a senior manager at Harex Infotech, among the first companies to develop the technology, said: "We are conditioned to think that a credit card is a plastic rectangle. But it is actually the data on the strip at the back, and data can be stored anywhere."
Instead of handing over credit or debit cards for swiping, users type their passcode on the phone keypad, point the device at a special receiver on a checkout counter and press a key.
The phone sends the card data in an infrared beam or radio waves. No signature is necessary. For small payments at vending machines, the passcode is not even required.
Transmissions are encrypted and secure, and subscribers who lose their phones can get them disabled within seconds by informing the credit card company.
The phone payment schemes are being trialled at Yokohama National University in Japan.
Lee Jong-hyun, a manager at SK Telecom, envisages mobile phones that also contain club memberships, a driver's licence, ID card, airline frequent flier card - essentially everything people carry in their wallets.
"In the future you only will have to carry one handset," Lee said. "It will be your window to the world."