My wife kind of freaked out over the new TV Commercial for Chase Bank. It shows a newlywed couple on their honeymoon…in bed…doing the unthinkable.

They were gleefully opening the cards they had received from their wedding guests and using their mobile phone to take photos of the checks…and instantly depositing them in their bank account electronically. Gasp. What is this world coming to?

Mobile donations and now mobile banking? According to Mercatus LLC, a mobile finance consulting firm, more than half of U.S. consumers, and almost 80 percent of those between the ages of 18 and 34, will use mobile financial services within five years.

But we’re not stopping there. We can now use our mobile phones to make purchases.

Visa and MasterCard are cashing in as people abandon cash and paper checks for cards and electronic payments, which now account for more than half of U.S. consumer purchases, according to the Nilson Report.

Interchange fees on credit and debit cards exceed $40 billion a year and average about 1 percent to 2 percent of every transaction. Afterall, “Visa is everywhere you want to be.” of course…so is your phone.

So is it any surprise that the phone carriers are looking for another way to get into our pocket? Even if they have to–yikes–hold the competition’s hands to do it. Yes, AT&T and Verizon Wireless are planning a big move into wireless electronic payments, a sector currently dominated by PayPal, Visa, MasterCard and American Express. Bloomberg reports that “a trial in the Atlanta area would be the carriers’ biggest effort to spur mobile payments in the U.S. and supplant more than 1 billion plastic cards in American wallets.”

The system will allow people to complete their purchases in stores with just a wave of their smartphones. Retailers who pay a small percent of each credit card transaction to Visa or MasterCard may be ready to help the new venture if it will mean a reduction in their fees.

The truth is, Cellular carriers need to find more ways to make money in the U.S. as their subscription growth slows. Sprint-Nextel, AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile have about 275 million customers among them. Each levies charges on data transfers and video services, but at some point these will cap out as well. And the heated competition among the carriers pushes down prices as customers shop for the least expensive plans.

“Mobile payments are the logical next step for consumers,” said Mark Siegel, a spokesman for Dallas-based AT&T.