Mobile commerce, or “M-Commerce”, includes applications and services that are accessible from Internet-enabled mobile devices. In particular, M-Commerce provides the ability to use a mobile device to participate in financial transactions. Some M-Commerce services use the Near Field Communication (NFC) standard. Two NFC-enabled devices establish radio communication with each other by touching them together or bringing them into close proximity. An NFC-enabled mobile device may include an NFC chip, while another device may include an NFC chip reader. When the two devices come into close proximity, the NFC chip reader wakes up the NFC chip on the mobile device and establishes a communication link between them. Data may then be exchanged between the devices. For example, a merchant may provide a kiosk with an NFC chip reader. During a financial transaction, such as the purchase of consumer items, the mobile device user brings the NFC-enabled mobile device in close proximity to the kiosk so that the NFC chip reader in the kiosk may establish a communication link with the mobile device. Data is then exchanged between the user's mobile device and the kiosk, such as information for authentication and payment account information. Upon conclusion of the financial transaction, a paper or electronic receipt may be generated and provided to the user or the user's mobile device.
However, unlike a traditional commercial transaction, current M-Commerce applications do not provide a mobile device the ability to associate other mobile devices with the same m-commerce account. For example, it is common practice with traditional physical credit cards for a primary account owner to authorize additional users to charge to the same credit card account. This is not possible with current M-Commerce applications.
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