Google Wallet

More ways for my identity to get stolen, rockin

 

So if you get your phone stole, people have access to all of your credit cards and such.......great.

 

I hope that app has finger print recognition or something before it opens up. Otherwise, it's a catastrophe waiting to happen. Cool idea though.

 

That's one bad ass coke machine.

 

is this really that difficult to operate?

Spoiler

 

I don't have a smartphone. I'm starting to feel pressure.

 

enticing people with neat tricks in order to steal and sell more and more personal information?

or

awesome way to slim down what a person needs to carry around in today's modern consumer economy?

I dunno, seems like a lot of potential snags and not that much payoff all in all, all while being pretty cool. Also, I guess if you have a debit/check card or have some "google prepaid" credit it's interesting, but otherwise you are putting sodas on your credit card? Lastly, is getting out your phone, unlocking it via code (because it now has all of your credit cards on there) opening the app, etc, really that much faster (or even more fun?) than just getting a $20 out of your wallet/pocket/purse?

I'm lukewarm at best, I think.

 

Let's get America to use their credit cards for EVERYTHING. Even vending machines.

What could possibly go wrong?

 

I use my debit card for those all the time at the mall and I enjoy it as I rarely carry cash on me.

 

Doesn't the same thing happen when your wallet gets stolen?

 

change is scary

 

I would guess most people under 30 already use plastic for everything. I only get cash when going out for drinks. In fact, I put everything on credit cards and pay off the balance every month. 2% cash back means a 2% discount on everything I buy (plus the cost of carry on the money staying in my bank account).

It's not for everyone (have to know you will have the money to pay the bill at the end of the month), but it makes the banks work for me instead of the other way around.

 

Plus credit cards give you far more power in terms of merchant dispute and fraud protection.

 

Spoiler

Ahhh!

 

Google wants to to get access to the financial transaction data for the user so that they can better understand what the user is shopping and hence provide more targeted ads. Plus I could see them selling this information to the individual businesses as aggregate data and charge them for getting access to this data.

 

Yep, only difference is you can't call your wallet when you cant find it.

 

Good on ya. Right, I didn't say I couldn't see appeal. I just said I was lukewarm at best about it. Your example somewhat falls into what I meant by debit/check card, I meant no exclusion.

That said, I do like using cash. It's not for everyone. (Have to know you will have the cash to pay for things), but it makes things simple. If I were to use googlewallet I would probably get the prepaid google cards, and still use cash if I had enough on me for whatever it is.

 

Near field communication payment systems won't be exclusive to Google, so if this, like so many of their other tools have, turns into vaporware or dies in beta, NFC will live on. There are several companies already using NFC systems worldwide in some way or another.

Apple's iPhone will be getting NFC capabilities, as well.

 

what if your battery dies? big time trouble...