Aside from having a much smaller purse, what are the benefits of tying your smartphone to your wallet? This seems to be one of the latest phone frenzies – paying with a swipe of your phone at the coffee shop, doing your banking while sitting in traffic or sharing your credit/debit card purchases with the world via a social media app.

An article in the current issue of Fast Company magazine addresses this very issue, noting how Japan is ahead of the curve in terms of using your phone for purchases. But the United States is catching up fast, this article notes: “This year, eBay expects U.S. consumers to buy roughly $1.5 billion worth of goods using its smartphone apps.”

Is this convenient or creepy? Will people accept this as just another move toward a technologically driven society or will fears of identity theft leave some skeptical? Let us know what you think. Are you banking or buying with your phone?

Now, if we could just figure out a way for our phones to make the money…