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Google Wallet leak shows off new physical credit cards

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Re: Google Wallet leak shows off new physical credit cards

#11

Post by ben1040 »

jessriedel wrote: post #9
ben1040 wrote: post #3

So the recent change to Google Wallet to let you use any card you wanted basically worked by creating a virtual credit card that acted as a proxy, and transmitting that card number using NFC. When the charge hit that virtual card, they would then process a corresponding charge to your real card. It looks like they're going to give you the option of getting a physical representation of that proxy card. One thing I'm c…

Does Google forward the charge to Amex, or does the Google Wallet Apps just simulate the Amex card's NFC signal, so that the merchant can't tell the difference? If the latter, you obviously deal with Amex

Google had a partnership with Citi, so if you had a Citi card, it would actually send the real card number. With any other bank, the proxy card number is sent, and Google forwards the charge to the real card.

Re: Google Wallet leak shows off new physical credit cards

#12

Post by Firehed »

dmix wrote: post #6
blhack wrote: post #5

Looks like google wallet is a not-so-well-liked app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...

Seems like they deployed a version that broke the app on Nexus S. The remaining one stars are users complaining about lack of support on various android phones. So looks like people are really interested in using it but can't get proper access to it, those than can do like it,

So:

1) A software update can now render you unable to make payments.

2) You're only able to pay people if you've bought one of a few specific pieces of hardware.

Traditional payment cards suffer neither of these problems which is probably why Google's planning to offer this... but overall it sounds like this is just adding more complexity into the already mindlessly-complex payments infrastructure.

Re: Google Wallet leak shows off new physical credit cards

#16

Post by shuzchen »

I wonder how flexible you are in deciding what card you want their physical card to charge to? Do you log in and toggle the current card it's a proxy for? Or can you log in later that night and tell google wallet "charge that latte on the mastercard, charge that toy on the amex?". I'd be really excited if I could get one google card to replace some other cards, but one of the reasons I have multiple cards is to separate personal activity from my small business activity. It'd be really important for me to have those separate.

Re: Google Wallet leak shows off new physical credit cards

#17

Post by mmanfrin »

Firehed wrote: post #10

Huh. So I'll have one credit card to carry around that will just pass through the charge to another card I'm carrying around, because none of this stuff is yet reliable enough to abandon my wallet entirely. Sorry for the abrasive skepticism here... it's part of being in the industry. But I see one of two scenarios playing out here: 1) Google becomes (buys/owns/works with/...) a proper Issuing Bank giving out real lin…

I got the impression this is a lot like that iPhone writeable card -- i.e., you load in all your cards and then you can choose which card your Google Card represents. Lets you ditch all your cards and Google gets you to use wallet (which means they can push you in to using it as an actual payment wallet). And by getting you using Google Wallet, it'll encourage NFC adoption.

Re: Google Wallet leak shows off new physical credit cards

#19

Post by xoail »

I would like to see Wallet Card act as a wrapper of all my cards and automatically figure out best card to use to charge ultimately based on balances, reward points and may be split charges between cards if required. But with this change in Google Wallet, NFC adoption among merchants will become even harder.
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