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(edit: The FAQ page just says it's free, but doesn't isn't clear about limits)
What's not clear is how a person without a google wallet account claims the money. Is it the same tedious process of having to verify a bank account, give a social security number, promise a first born child, etc.
AFAIK, IANAL, IIRC, etc etc etc etc
It's unclear what happens to your Google Wallet balance if your account is closed: 2.4 Relation to your Google Account In order to use Google Wallet Services, you must have a Google Account which is in good standing with Google, in accordance with the Google Terms of Service. If you or Google closes your Google Account for any reason, your Google Wallet Account will also be closed and you will no longer be able to ac…
It seems pretty clear from that: you loose it.
How is this going to be handled, as a money exchange system ("yo, here's for covering lunch for me yesterday"), or like a payment system ("send your payment to shop@gmail.com")? It seems presented as the former: > you can securely send money to friends and family in the U.S. - without leaving your Gmail inbox but people will assuredly try to use it as the latter. When that happens, how will Google address fraud claim…
> securely send money to friends and family _in the U.S._
Google Voice it's the same problem - most of the world can't use it. Instead of 80/20 this is 20/80
Anyways, a while ago I heard a rumor that they had a team working on adding some, um... alternative, payment methods. Does anyone know where Google Wallet is headed with this?
Edit And here's some clues from the ToS[1]:
> 6. Google Wallet Balance & Peer to Peer Payments
> 6.1 The P2P Service is currently available only to Senders and Recipients who are U.S. residents and who otherwise meet the requirements of these Terms of Service. The P2P Service may not be used for business, commercial or charitable transactions.
> 6.2.a.iii For a Funding Account that is an ACH-enabled checking or savings account, initiate a debit through the ACH Network in the P2P Payment amount.
> 6.6 GPC may charge fees in accordance with the then-current fee schedule, as stated herein. Google Wallet may assess a fee of 2.9%, with a minimum fee of $0.30, per P2P Payment charged to the Sender for P2P Payments processed through the Service. Such fee shall be waived where your Google Wallet Balance is used for the P2P Payment, or an ACH-enabled checking or savings account is the Funding Account for the P2P Payment.
Looks like they've beat out Dwolla here. Ouch.
I'm also really interested in what forbidding "charitable transactions" actually entails. Is it just donations to 501(c)(3)s or is it gifts of other types? How about political donations? And what's its primary purpose? My first thought was that it must be for tax reasons, but then I remembered that people who want to prevent PayPal charge backs often request that payments be marked as "gifts", so it can't be disputed.
[1] https://wallet.google.com/legaldocument?family=0.buyertos...
Does anyone know what fees are incurred for using this service, and if there is a maximum limit on the transaction amount? I had trouble finding this on the Wallet site. (edit: The FAQ page just says it's free, but doesn't isn't clear about limits)
Ok, so it's 2.9% fee for credit / debit card payments. And I'm assuming the "connect directly to your bank account" is just using ACH transfers, which take a couple days. Anyways, a while ago I heard a rumor that they had a team working on adding some, um... alternative, payment methods. Does anyone know where Google Wallet is headed with this? Edit And here's some clues from the ToS[1]: > 6. Google Wallet Balance &…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is one of the reasons Checkout was introduced in the first place. However, I doubt this will have an instant effect. I'm not sure about the current status, but at some point sellers I contacted couldn't add Google Checkout as payment option as it was US exclusive.
Checkout and Wallet are not the same thing.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
... it's US-only, again? It won't be long before I just proxy all of my traffic through Amazon s3 or something.
Given the country-specific regulatory red tape that comes with anything involving money, there's more of an excuse than normal to roll this out country-by-country.
If they continue innovating in the payment space at this rate, they will maybe have a solution people here can actually use in 2020.
In case there was any ambiguity about whether Google knew the 'real you' from their logging of IPs and search terms, this should remove all of it. In a way I think we're seeing Google striking against Facebook in what I call the "identity wars" where each service is struggling to be an identity and information service about people.
In what way does this announcement make this more or less evident?