Want pizza? Just charge to a phone
A new payment method being offered by Waltham Pizza is giving new meaning to the phrase "call out for pizza." The restaurant is one of the first in the western suburbs to let customers pay with their mobile phones.
Raffi Hovagimian, the pizza shop's owner and manager, is the first in Waltham and one of only a few merchants in the western suburbs to accept and promote the MobileLime payment service, which the company says is now used by between 8,000 and 10,000 Boston-area consumers.
About 80 to 90 of Hovagimian's customers have signed up, a third of them regulars. About 10 to 15 percent more use MobileLime to pay for several meals a week, he said.
When the Newton-based business first approached him with the idea earlier this year, "I knew it was going to be big," said Hovagimian, who's been in the pizza business since 1993. "In Europe, that's how they do it. Everything's with the mobile nowadays."
Other participating locations include Watertown Taxi and Yerardi's restaurant and Quizno's subs in Newton.
About 80 merchants in Greater Boston participate in the program, said Andy Fruit, MobileLime's vice president of marketing. "The response we get from everybody has been pretty fabulous.
"It's a safer way to pay, because you're not handing your credit card over to anyone," he said. "And of course you're not flashing a lot of cash; you're paying by cellphone."
Here's how it works: A customer signs up for MobileLime at the merchant, through the service's website at www.mobilelime.com, or by dialing 1-866-360-LIME. Users can link the account to a debit or credit card account or prepay.
To make a purchase, customers dial a toll-free number, punch in their personal identification number and the ID number of the merchant, and then give the cashier the last four digits of their cellphone number.
The service allows merchants to offer discounts to customers via text messages or bonus credits that go into their MobileLime account. At Waltham Pizza, customers get a 20 percent credit when they sign up for a prepaid account.
Fruit said the promotional aspect of the service appeals to both merchants and consumers.
"You know how many times I've seen moms in the supermarket with their kids, and they're trying to find their discount cards and trying to watch the kids?" he said. "And here you can just do it with a button on your cellphone, and you don't have to worry about whether your kid's stuffing a candy bar down his pants."
Mobile payment options aren't Waltham Pizza's first foray into technology. It also has a flashy, animated website that talks to visitors. A pizza-shaped mouse icon guides you through the menu of subs, pizza, and pasta.
Stephanie V. Siek can be reached at ssiek@globe.com. 