Google Wallet May Get a Physical Card for Payments Everywhere

Google Wallet hasn't been a huge success. Neither have any of Google's past moves into the payments business, like Google Checkout which was merged into Wallet.

But the promise is too great for Google to give up, so it's adding more and more features and capabilities to its mobile payments service.

For one, it has now become possible to pay for stuff online using Google Wallet on your phone. The idea is to make it easier to shop online from your phone.

Rather than having to enter all of your credit card details, you can simply use the Google Wallet app on your phone, for sites that support Wallet payments.

But much more interesting are some leaked details about Google's plan to unveil a physical plastic card associated with your Wallet account.

It makes sense too, NFC isn't fanning out as Google wanted it to so adding another way of paying for stuff if your phone doesn't have NFC or if the merchant doesn't accept NFC payments should make people more likely to use the service.

The card won't be a credit card per se, rather, it will be associated with the Google Wallet account. Any purchases will be billed to the default credit card in Wallet.

The card offers some of the convenience of using Wallet, you don't need to carry all your cards with you, as long as they are associated with a Wallet account. If you lose it, you only need to remove it from Googl e Wallet, no damage done.

The card also makes it possible to add or remove money from your Wallet account and you can even transfer funds to other users. Finally, it will also be possible to associate other types of cards, such as mass transit tickets, with this card. It sounds promising, but it remains to be seen how well it does in practice.

Via: Google Wallet May Get a Physical Card for Payments Everywhere