What is a mobile-device wallet?¶
A mobile-device wallet lets a phone, watch or similar endpoint present payment credentials, tokens or stored value. It is a separate payment environment, not simply a picture of the physical card.
The device usually presents a substitute credential¶
When a card is provisioned, the wallet or network may issue a device-specific token. The same card can therefore have different tokens on different devices, and the physical card can be elsewhere when the wallet is used.
The wallet may also contain payment accounts, tickets, loyalty credentials or its own value. A successful payment establishes use of the relevant wallet credential, not the identity of the person holding the device.
Link wallet, endpoint and funding records¶
Useful records include device and wallet IDs, token, provisioning and suspension history, linked account, verification method, authentication and transaction reference. Provider and issuer records can map these layers more reliably than screenshots alone.
Report the endpoint, wallet account, token, underlying funding source and attributed user as separate propositions.
The point to remember
Treat a mobile wallet as its own payment layer and map its endpoint and token to the underlying funding source before attributing use.
