Google’s mobile payment service is the third digital wallet to hit Australia, following the launch of Apple and Samsung Pay. But unlike its Apple and Samsung digital wallet rivals, which launched with one or two banking partners, Android Pay is compatible with 28 financial institutions. Google’s payment solution will also work on more phones than that of its rivals.
Android Pay can be used on any smartphone running Google Android software, version KitKat and above, including handsets from Samsung, Sony, LG, Huawei, BlackBerry, and HTC. Samsung smartphone owners will be able to choose whether to use Samsung or Android Pay, while iPhone users can only use Apple Pay as a digital wallet.
„You will be able to use Android Pay everywhere contactless payments are accepted, including your favourite shops. Just wake your phone and tap as you would with your card. It’s that simple. And businesses across the country with contactless terminals don’t need to do anything else to be able to accept Android Pay in store.”, according to official blog of Google Australia.
„To start using Android Pay you’ll need to download the Android Pay app on Google Play and have an eligible American Express, Visa — and in a few days, MasterCard — credit or debit card from one of our 25+ supported banks and credit unions, such as ANZ, American Express, Macquarie, MyState Bank, and Teachers Mutual Bank. More banks and cards are being added all the time — cards from Bendigo Bank and ING Direct will be supported soon.”, Google says.
Google product management senior director Pali Bhat told News Corp that Australia was a natural market for mobile payment technology due to the huge number of tap-and-pay credit card terminals and because “two thirds of Australians” were already using the technology to pay for goods.
“The ubiquity of mobile payments really makes Australia an awesome country for us to launch Android Pay.”
As ANZ rolls out Android Pay to its customers, the Australian bank’s chief executive Shayne Elliott has predicted that mobile payments could displace plastic cards in well under a decade. ANZ is onboard for the launch of Android Pay in Australia and already lets customers make payments through Apple Pay as well as its own contactless mobile payments service.
Speaking to local journalists, Elliott said: „I could see it [mobile payments] absolutely displacing plastic and I’m not talking in 10 years, we’re talking in a much shorter period of time than that.”
With contactless card transactions already popular in Australia, Elliott says: „The step from pulling out your card from your wallet and tapping it, and your phone, which is probably already in your hand, and tapping it on, is a really small step.”
Although it is not revealing numbers, ANZ says that takeup of Apple Pay has been strong in the few months since it arrived and Elliott says that the bank could move to make adoption easier by giving customers ‘virtual cards’ for digital wallets.
„That is a very, very realistic aspiration that’s not that far away.” Eliot added.
Australian phone users download the Android Pay app from 14 of July, and activate it by registering a supported credit card. Once set up, users will be able to unlock their phone and hold it close to a payment terminal to pay for an item.
“You won’t have to open the app again,” Mr Bhat said. “If you’re buying a drink at the 7-11, you can just raise your phone, tap it, and you’re done. There’s nothing to open.”
The phone transmits an encrypted token to the machine, rather than your credit card number, for security.
Mr Bhat said Google’s next step would be adding loyalty programs to Android Pay so consumers could stop carrying extra cards, though he declined to be drawn on when users would stop carrying their wallets and purses.
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:
