Banks and payment companies will need to offer consumers additional benefits before large numbers start using their smartphones as mobile wallets, according to a panel of industry experts.Managing director Australia and New Zealand at payments processor First Data, John Tait, said: "The question consumers are asking is what value they get for using a different payment instrument.""Contactless card payment has taken off because it offers great convenience. Using a mobile wallet would take longer in many situations," said Tait, who was speaking at the Australian Information Industry Association's payments innovation forum in Sydney on Friday."But if, for example, using the phone meant you could pay for your petrol, while using an electronic discount voucher and getting loyalty rewards in the same transaction, whereas it takes three transactions now, that would add value."Researcher RFi says use of mobile wallets is low at the moment and consumers are uncertain about the technology. In its most recent payments research, published in May, RFi found that only 20 per cent of consumers could envisage a situation where, in five years time, contactless smartphone payments were their most used method of payment.RFi says: "Innovation is fragmented across the industry, with the major banks each rolling out their own form of mobile payments without much collaboration. This fragmented approach might impede a more universal acceptance of mobile payment systems by consumers."According to RFi, 26 per cent of smartphone owners are aware of the near field communication technology that enables contactless payments and the fact that phones can be equipped with NFC capability. However, only four per cent have an NFC sticker on their phone and, of those, only about one-third have used their phone to make a contactless payment.Another speaker at the forum, Tyro vice president of sales Andrew Rothwell, said: "We are just at the start with these developments. What the phone allows you to do is have the customer interact with the merchant as well as make a payment."Tait said: "The phone brings the offline and online retail experiences together. You go into a store and the retailer sends you an SMS offering you a discount because you are a repeat customer."The chief executive of Bendigo Bank's telecommunications subsidiary Community Telco Australia, David Joss, agreed: "The skill is in using the smartphone to bring together the physical and the virtual worlds. You have to use mobile technology to make the in-store experience more valuable."Earlier this year Bendigo Bank launched a smartphone payment application called redy, which uses QR technology to enable payments. redy users open the app and scan the QR code displayed on the merchant's redy terminal. Funds are transferred, with loyalty credits (dubbed creds) automatically updated in the user's account.Tait said there was no silver bullet that would encourage mass usage of mobile wallets. "The opportunities are in niches," he said.