A New Mercedes-Benz App Enables Loan Payments on Mobile Devices with Wheels

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The U.S. finance arm of luxury car brand Mercedes-Benz is taking mobile applications beyond smart phones and tablet computers with an app the company claims is the first to let car owners manage their auto-loan accounts from the car itself.

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The purpose of the new “My MBFS” app is to increase customer convenience and continue Mercedes-Benz’s leadership in applying mobile-commerce technology to automobiles, Matt Darrah, manager of B2C digital marketing at Mercedes-Benz

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Financial Services USA LLC (MBFS), tells Digital Transactions News. For example, a time-strapped driver with a newer Mercedes-Benz model wanting to make a payment, see an account balance, review statements, or get a payoff quote no longer would need to pull out a smart phone or use a PC or laptop. All he or she would need to do is pull over and start using the car’s “Comand Navigation” on-dash display (the feature doesn’t work while the car is in motion).

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“At Mercedes-Benz Financial Services, we have had this mobile journey, we saw mobile coming in 2008,” says Darrah. “The car was a natural destination for us.”

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After deciding that mobile was the next big thing in connecting with customers, MBFS introduced an app for Apple Inc.’s iPhone in 2009, an app it claims was the the first of its kind in the auto industry. MBFS followed up in 2010 with browser-based account-management services and in 2011 with an app specifically designed for Apple’s iPad tablet. This week’s announcement represents the fourth major development in m-commerce by the Farmington Hills, Mich.-based subsidiary of Germany’s Daimler AG.

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Mercedes-Benz 2013 and 2014 passenger-car models run the app through the Comand displays, which pull up digital content using the company’s mbrace2 technology. Owners are charged $20 per month for mbrace2 after free trial periods of three or six months. They also need to enroll in a $14-per-month app service that besides My MBFS includes Google, Yelp, and Facebook. Internet connectivity comes from mbrace2’s 3G telecommunications connection, which uses a satellite provider’s network.

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Making a loan payment on a mobile device or through the on-dash display requires the car owner to register bank-account information beforehand at mbfs.com as well as obtain a user-identification name and password. Payments go over the automated clearing house network.

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Twenty percent of Mercedes’s online account-management sessions are coming through mobile devices, the company says. Customers have made $150 million in loan payments via mobile channels since the first iPhone app launched in late 2009. The new on-dash app continues Mercedes-Benz’s mobile marketing efforts and “creates a unique customer experience,” says Darrah.

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Payments consultant Todd Ablowitz, president of Centennial, Colo.-based Double Diamond Group, says that, while the in-car app is novel, “I don’t know that the killer app is going to be paying your bills in your car, only because I think it’s something you can do from your mobile phone quite easily.” But he adds that car manufacturers nowadays are putting more Internet connectivity into their vehicles, and payments functionality could be one part of what he calls a “hub and information center” on wheels.

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“That seems like a hook to connect users into the ecosystem they want to build over time,” Ablowitz says.