Google is killing off the physical debit card linked to its Wallet app and now focuses on P2P transactions. In a blog, Google says that customers will no longer be able to add money to their Wallet balance after 1 May and that transactions will not be processed after 30 June.
„After careful consideration, we’ve decided that we’ll no longer support the Wallet Card as of June 30. Moving forward, we want to focus on making it easier than ever to send and receive money with the Google Wallet app. If you’re interested in finding a replacement for your Wallet Card, both American Express and Simple offer accounts with similar features, including a card.”, acording to Googles’s blog.
Google Wallet initially only let users make in-store purchases via mobile NFC but, thanks to a limited number of compatible handsets and the refusal of telcos AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon to back it, the service failed to take off, prompting the introduction of a physical card in late 2013.
However, two years on the landscape has changed dramatically. Contactless terminal penetration has risen sharply, the telcos have ditched their rival service and sold their Softcard tech to Google, which has taken a second crack at the NFC payment market through Android Pay.
As a result Google Wallet has been given a makeover, focussing peer-to-peer payments and wallet-to-bank transfers, making the physical card obsolete.
Banking 4.0 – „how was the experience for you”
„So many people are coming here to Bucharest, people that I see and interact on linkedin and now I get the change to meet them in person. It was like being to the Football World Cup but this was the World Cup on linkedin in payments and open banking.”
Many more interesting quotes in the video below:
