The Amazing Google Wallet!

Google has made a huge move by launching technology which will mean we will no longer have to worry about our wallets bulging out of our back pockets, filled to the brim with all the necessary credit cards and store discount cards. In fact we won’t even have to bring our wallets out of the home ever again.

The main characteristic of Google Wallet is the transferring of the features of a wallet to your phone, which is termed a mobile app.  With this new facility it will be possible to store all the cards you own onto your mobile phone. This could include credit cards, debit cards and shoppers’ cards issued by retailers. Once goods are selected in a retail store and then taken to the check out, all the buyer has to do is wave the mobile phone, with all the necessary data in it, in front of a NFC reader installed at the checkout. This Near Field Communication Reader instantly picks up the information stored on the phone and it is transferred to the checkout register. If there are any in-store sales offers on then these will be picked up by the mobile app. With a simple tap of the phone.

The question of security does not seem to be an issue as the app will have its own unique PIN number. Also, the NFC aerial in the phone only becomes activated when the screen of the phone appears and then no transactions can take place until the PIN number has been keyed in.

Co-operation from the bank or financial institution is required as they have to allow the credit or debit card to be installed on the NFC enabled phone. A NFC- enabled phone has a payment application for a credit or debit card which is issued and approved by the consumer’s financial institution and then installed on the phone. The application and encrypted information are located in the most secure place on the phone. The retailer has a POS enabled device that reads the card information and relays it to the specific bank which, as occurs with any electronic transaction, will allow the transaction to go through.

Google Wallet intends to offer two ways of paying for goods: using a Pay Pass eligible Citi MasterCard and a Google Prepaid card. By coming to an agreement with MasterCard, anyone with a Google Wallet app. Will be able to pay at any retailers’ checkout facility which accepts MasterCard Pay Pass. This will simplify the process for retailers as well as consumers. This whole process of payment for goods is made incredibly easy as consumers will only have to carry a mobile phone around with them, which most people do anyway, and leave the old bulging wallet at home or put it in the rubbish bin – a now obsolete item which will not even be recyclable as there will be no demand. Even the most expensive crocodile skin wallet could find its way to landfill.

Mobile phone payments are not entirely new but by 2014 it is predicted that payments made in this way will total approximately $1billion. However, there is still no firm indication that we are about to reach the age of a cashless society – even with Google Wallet.

Leave a comment

Click here to cancel reply.

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

Comment

CAPTCHA Code *