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 lines of credit for a credit card. They get interchange fees when you use your card, just like any other card issuer. No real value is added to the equation, and it's yet another service that Google offers which becomes a nightmare if you need to speak with a human - which when you're dealing with people's money is quite often. They may have a decently searchable web UI for your transaction history, but so does Mint.
2) Google does some clever magic where they authorize one of your cards on file when you swipe your Wallet card, and just pass through the result. Because they still need to act as an issuing bank here, they either raise interchange over the real issuing bank of the actual card (store owner gets screwed), or charge the same or less and eat the loss. Presumably they'll make up this way by creepily using your purchase history.
Neither of these scenarios does anything to move retailers closer to NFC adoption (actually useful for Google/Android), and I'm not sure how many people are willing to have some "one card to rule them all" thing going on, which is the only real benefit I see to the consumer here.
Having my wallet 3mm thinner isn't enough benefit for me to not pick the best rewards card based on where I'm shopping, never mind the fact that I don't trust Google with my financial data (or, more accurately, I don't see any benefit in giving them access to it)
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.
That uses a mounted magstripe writer, doesn't it? Or does the card have some sort of integrated rewriting electronics? I can't find any technical specifications.
It seems more likely the card will act like a prepaid 'passthrough' card as in the existing system.
I've found that NFC adoption is way better in Toronto and Waterloo (in Canada) than it is in San Francisco; partly due to a banks forcing a transition to chip-and-pin credit cards. (IIRC, they couple this with changes to their liability in their ToS; if you give out your PIN or similar, you're screwed.)
>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.
Or maybe it has to do with a completely backward aged industry that uses an insecure standard? There are NFC readers all over here and they're all disabled because the implementation on plastic cards is shit and insecure so they turn the whole reader off. This prohibits something like the Nexus 4 from being able to auth payments which could easily be done in a manner far more secure.
The sad thing is, Google is so far ahead that no one else is close enough to be compatible so this is the shim they have to implement.
This comment is so incredibly pessimistic, I'd hate to have this attitude towards something new that is challenged by virtue of its newness.
Having written code to interface with the IBM mainframes that power the credit networks... yes, I'm pessimistic about this. I absolutely welcome any improvement in the payment card space (especially around authentication and security in general) but so long as they're going over the existing networks at any point, that's going to be the weak link in the chain.
Simply put, it's a really bad chicken-and-egg problem. But offering a traditional payment card to bridge the gap does nothing to improve retailer adoption of the necessary tech to really move things forward.
Unless google is going to provide (and replace) that hardware, it's unlikely to happen. And if they do, they basically have to declare war on Visa et al due to the PCI requirements around POS hardware - they're not going to certify hardware that can be used to eventually bypass them, and merchants won't risk using uncertified hardware because they'll get shut off by their acquiring bank.
>Unless google is going to provide (and replace) that hardware
Mm, I had thought about the same thing. They could too, they could have some secure NFC smartcard and a contactful NFC card and use PKI and on and on, if you work in this area I'm sure my ideas pale in comparison to what you work with or can imagine.
I think they have to declare war on VISA. VISA doesn't seem to really give a shit to bother improving and it's probably in their best interest to keep everyone hooked on their physical infrastructure. If your phone becomes the focal point of the POS system, then I would imagine payment processor competition would be encouraged. I'm more or less just yammering now though, sorry.
Comments
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 lines of credit for a credit card. They get interchange fees when you use your card, just like any other card issuer. No real value is added to the equation, and it's yet another service that Google offers which becomes a nightmare if you need to speak with a human - which when you're dealing with people's money is quite often. They may have a decently searchable web UI for your transaction history, but so does Mint.
2) Google does some clever magic where they authorize one of your cards on file when you swipe your Wallet card, and just pass through the result. Because they still need to act as an issuing bank here, they either raise interchange over the real issuing bank of the actual card (store owner gets screwed), or charge the same or less and eat the loss. Presumably they'll make up this way by creepily using your purchase history.
Neither of these scenarios does anything to move retailers closer to NFC adoption (actually useful for Google/Android), and I'm not sure how many people are willing to have some "one card to rule them all" thing going on, which is the only real benefit I see to the consumer here.
Having my wallet 3mm thinner isn't enough benefit for me to not pick the best rewards card based on where I'm shopping, never mind the fact that I don't trust Google with my financial data (or, more accurately, I don't see any benefit in giving them access to it)
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.
That uses a mounted magstripe writer, doesn't it? Or does the card have some sort of integrated rewriting electronics? I can't find any technical specifications.
It seems more likely the card will act like a prepaid 'passthrough' card as in the existing system.
This is basically exactly what Google Wallet does as of a week or two ago..
I've found that NFC adoption is way better in Toronto and Waterloo (in Canada) than it is in San Francisco; partly due to a banks forcing a transition to chip-and-pin credit cards. (IIRC, they couple this with changes to their liability in their ToS; if you give out your PIN or similar, you're screwed.)
>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.
Or maybe it has to do with a completely backward aged industry that uses an insecure standard? There are NFC readers all over here and they're all disabled because the implementation on plastic cards is shit and insecure so they turn the whole reader off. This prohibits something like the Nexus 4 from being able to auth payments which could easily be done in a manner far more secure.
The sad thing is, Google is so far ahead that no one else is close enough to be compatible so this is the shim they have to implement.
This comment is so incredibly pessimistic, I'd hate to have this attitude towards something new that is challenged by virtue of its newness.
Having written code to interface with the IBM mainframes that power the credit networks... yes, I'm pessimistic about this. I absolutely welcome any improvement in the payment card space (especially around authentication and security in general) but so long as they're going over the existing networks at any point, that's going to be the weak link in the chain.
Simply put, it's a really bad chicken-and-egg problem. But offering a traditional payment card to bridge the gap does nothing to improve retailer adoption of the necessary tech to really move things forward.
Unless google is going to provide (and replace) that hardware, it's unlikely to happen. And if they do, they basically have to declare war on Visa et al due to the PCI requirements around POS hardware - they're not going to certify hardware that can be used to eventually bypass them, and merchants won't risk using uncertified hardware because they'll get shut off by their acquiring bank.
>Unless google is going to provide (and replace) that hardware
Mm, I had thought about the same thing. They could too, they could have some secure NFC smartcard and a contactful NFC card and use PKI and on and on, if you work in this area I'm sure my ideas pale in comparison to what you work with or can imagine.
I think they have to declare war on VISA. VISA doesn't seem to really give a shit to bother improving and it's probably in their best interest to keep everyone hooked on their physical infrastructure. If your phone becomes the focal point of the POS system, then I would imagine payment processor competition would be encouraged. I'm more or less just yammering now though, sorry.