Mobile payments adoption’s been slow to catch on in the U.S., but that may change in coming months as the folks who process credit card payments ramp up their push for the system to  get established.  The reason? Ultimately, it’s a more secure way to pay for purchases than the ubiquitous credit card — which consumers and retail outlets have gotten well used to in the past few decades.

Using a smartphone to make a purchase isn’t such a stretch. Nearly three quarters of these phone users make their buying decisions with the help of the gadget.

Now, they’ll just pay for them by swiping the same device.

One of the big impediments to adoption in recent years has been the reluctance of merchants to acquire the devices necessary to scan mobile devices.

That problem’s being addressed because leading suppliers of payment terminals have now agreed to begin enabling the NFC (near field communications) that power mobile payments in all the machines they provide. Merchants who haven’t moved to the new terminals by 2015 will assume increased liability for fraudulent credit card purchases at their stores.

Consumers are also a bit wary about the technology, which proponents say is actually more secure than the current plastic card method. How’s that? The mobile device can be easily locked if it’s lost, the mobile payment system requires a passcode and there’s no magnetic stripe that can have its data stolen.

Tags: credit cards, mobile payments, NFC