Android By Russell Holly Nov. 20, 2013 5:38 pm
After a long and mostly stagnant period of existence, Google appears to finally be making some positive progress with Wallet. The latest step in this project has finally come to pass, but it’s not quite what we were expecting.
Last year there was a rumor buzzing around that Google was preparing a physical card for Google Wallet. It wasn’t so much a rumor as an unreleased product, especially considering there were Googlers with physical cards publicly dogfooding the card at one point. For whatever reason, Google hit a brick wall with Wallet and it seemed like there was no progress at all until the recent update to the app, as well as the inclusion of Host Card Emulation in Android 4.4. Now that Wallet seems to be coming back to life, Google has announced the availability of a physical card for Wallet. Unfortunately, it’s not quite as featureful as we had once hoped it would be.
The new Google Wallet card is built specifically for dealing with your Wallet balance. You can add money to your Google Wallet account currently, but removing it usually means some kind of bank transfer. The Wallet card will allow you to treat this account like any other bank account. Unfortunately, for now, that’s where the features end. You won’t be able to use the card to access funds from other accounts that you have added to Google Wallet, like you would by using the NFC payment service on your smartphone.
What you get for now is a nice looking card and live notifications for when you make transactions on this account. Use of the card means no fees for any kind of transaction, and no balance requirement of any kind. On top of this, Google has partnered with a huge list of retail partners for loyalty programs that will give you bonuses for using Google Wallet. Signing up for the card is incredibly easy if you’re already using Wallet for transactions, but if you aren’t, all you need to do is complete the identity verification section in your Wallet account. Once you do that, you’ll be able to order a card and have it shipped in about 10 days.
The cool thing about this process*is it shows Google is still very interested in seeing Wallet become successful, which will mean new features on a regular basis for this payment service. Now that ISIS has finally entered the playing field for mobile payments, Google is going to put a lot of energy into making Wallet great, which can only be good for users interested in trying the service out.
Now read: Which Nexus 5 case is the best?
More...
Last year there was a rumor buzzing around that Google was preparing a physical card for Google Wallet. It wasn’t so much a rumor as an unreleased product, especially considering there were Googlers with physical cards publicly dogfooding the card at one point. For whatever reason, Google hit a brick wall with Wallet and it seemed like there was no progress at all until the recent update to the app, as well as the inclusion of Host Card Emulation in Android 4.4. Now that Wallet seems to be coming back to life, Google has announced the availability of a physical card for Wallet. Unfortunately, it’s not quite as featureful as we had once hoped it would be.
The new Google Wallet card is built specifically for dealing with your Wallet balance. You can add money to your Google Wallet account currently, but removing it usually means some kind of bank transfer. The Wallet card will allow you to treat this account like any other bank account. Unfortunately, for now, that’s where the features end. You won’t be able to use the card to access funds from other accounts that you have added to Google Wallet, like you would by using the NFC payment service on your smartphone.
What you get for now is a nice looking card and live notifications for when you make transactions on this account. Use of the card means no fees for any kind of transaction, and no balance requirement of any kind. On top of this, Google has partnered with a huge list of retail partners for loyalty programs that will give you bonuses for using Google Wallet. Signing up for the card is incredibly easy if you’re already using Wallet for transactions, but if you aren’t, all you need to do is complete the identity verification section in your Wallet account. Once you do that, you’ll be able to order a card and have it shipped in about 10 days.
The cool thing about this process*is it shows Google is still very interested in seeing Wallet become successful, which will mean new features on a regular basis for this payment service. Now that ISIS has finally entered the playing field for mobile payments, Google is going to put a lot of energy into making Wallet great, which can only be good for users interested in trying the service out.
Now read: Which Nexus 5 case is the best?
More...
