Google Wallet mobile payment service goes official
Yes, here it is, the NFC payment system from Google, the Google Wallet mobile payment service, is finally official. Those retailers and financial partners that will be participating in Google Wallet system is Subway, Macy’s, Walgreens, Toys ‘R Us, First Data, Citibank and MasterCard — plus Sprint on the carrier side.
Google Wallet will be fully compatible with the PayPass MasterCard feature from MasterCard, so this service will be a much welcome one indeed since it’s already well-established and widely available.
Trials are beginning immediately in New York and San Francisco, with a full release planned for this summer. Initially, the Sprint Nexus S 4G will be the only compatible phone, but support for more phones is promised “over time,” and Google even suggested that phones without built-in NFC could simply use an NFC sticker (the Google Wallet app itself will work on non-NFC phones as well). You’ll also have to use either a Citi MasterCard or Google Prepaid Card with the service, although the latter can obviously be top-up from any other card easily.
There’s also another feature announced by Google and that is Google Offers, which will send you an “offer of the day” to your inbox every single day, which is of course only valid for Google Wallet. You’ll be able to both redeem offers and receive loyalty rewards from retailers with just a tap of your NFC-enabled phone.
All these will be available in the US only for now, but Google is apparently working on international expansion.
SOURCE via Google
