Google Wallet moves to the cloud, opens up to all credit and debit cards

[mpclark]

There's a bit of sleight of hand going on here, in that it seems to be a Mastercard prepaid card in the phone which just charges your transactions to other cards you have on file with Google. So you don't pay the retailer with Amex, you pay with MasterCard and the charge eventually lands on your Amex. This makes it a bit like PayPal, but we already know that PayPal prefers to draw money from your bank account rather than your credit card because it is cheaper. It will be interesting to understand how the fees are structured around all of this because it seems to me there could be 2x friction in play...

[ben1040]

I wonder how this plays in with chargebacks & consumer protection from cards.

If Google's partner bank is a proxy between the merchant and, say, your Amex, what happens if you need to invoke a chargeback? Does Google's partner get involved and push back against Amex?

[andrewpi]

It's possible that Google is getting a percentage of the transaction fee that is paid by the merchant when the 'virtual' Google Wallet Mastercard is used, and then applying that money to the transaction fee that they have to pay to charge your American Express, etc.

[benologist]

Summary spam stuffed and tagged with SEO spam.

http://googlecommerce.blogspot.com/2012/08/use-any-credit-or...

[jrockway]

Ironically, I posted that link immediately after we posted the announcement and it didn't get any traction. I think people like the editorialized versions better, or something.

[jdelsman]

For those of you who wonder why Starbucks and others continue to support their own card apps instead of PayPass/Google Wallet: credit card fees. Starbucks loads up $25 at a time, with a single $0.30 fee (or whatever they are charged), rather than having to pay $0.30 per small $3 (iced coffee, for example) transaction.

[_ea1k]

AFAIK, this still does not support phones which lack a secure element (T-Mobile US, SGSII... probably others as well). Hopefully that will come in another iteration or two.

[ajross]

Those phones don't have NFC anyway, which is a more realistic impediment. It's NFC-based wallet that is the real innovation here. Online payments by themselves are hardly new territory.

[nuclear_eclipse]

Still being blocked for users on Verizon....

[Pwntastic]

I had to manually go to the google wallet page on the play store and click install before it actually updated on my phone.

I already had it installed on my phone but it wasn't detecting an update in the play store until I force re-installed it

[andrewpi]

My friend with a Verizon Galaxy Nexus who had previously sideloaded the Wallet.apk says that his Wallet application updated from the Play Store today with the new features.

[batgaijin]

Does this have anything to do with competing with Stripe as a payment system? The article seems to focus on the mobile aspect, so I'd assume not, but engadget focuses on consumer improvements.

[ars]

They need to get WalMart, Target and some large grocery stores to gain critical mass here.

[kamechan]

Works at Whole Foods and Peet's coffee.

[eblume]

When can I use my HTC One X as a replacement for my credit card? Call me when that happens, until then I see this as just another PayPal.

Unless we're already there, but some short internet searches found nothing but misleading blog post titles.

[StavrosK]

The One X has an NFC sensor, so it should work with Wallet. Doesn't it?