Google Wallet users can now use a physical debit card at ATM machines and anywhere else where MasterCard is accepted.
The debit card has no annual or monthly fees and ships in 10-12 days after requested, Google Inc. announced Wednesday on its blog. Consumers can add money to the card through Google Wallet, link it to a bank account, and transfer money between other Google Wallet users. Money added to the application shows up immediately on the card, and users no longer have to wait for the Google Wallet balance to be transferred to their bank accounts, according to the blog post.
The card is currently only available in the United States and is issued by Bancorp Bank, which provides private label banking services.
Consumer Data
Google, the world’s largest search engine, is using the card as a way to collect more data on consumer shopping habits and expand its mobile payments, a spokesperson confirmed to Reuters. Google Shopping, too, is focused on ad growth rather than e-commerce, and traffic has doubled each quarter since replacing free ads with paid ads, steadily outgrowing Amazon.com’s placement ads.
The company had previously been working on a credit card but shelved the project in May, when head of Google’s wallet and payments group Osama Bedier left the company, according to technology blog AllThingsD.
According to Forrester Research, mobile payments in the United States will be more than $90 billion in 2017. However, the demand for the physical card shows people aren’t completely ready for 100 percent mobile payments. Google had previously experimented with mobile payments allowing users to wave their phones to complete a transaction. The project was also shelved after hackers exposed some weaknesses of the system online.
Competition
The card competes with services like Square. Square Wallet allows users to use their phone like a debit card. Square Cash lets users send money via email and has been touted for its simplicity, but a transaction takes a day or two.
According to a Businessweek report earlier this year, Google has spent $300 million on Google Wallet but hasn’t been able to gain much of a following. According to Bedier, Google loses money for every transaction because of the high fees it pays to the credit card companies it works with. The goal, however, is consumer data.
