Adding credit cards to Google Wallet is becoming even easier for users with any kind of credit or debit card.
After a newly rolled out cloud-based version of its mobile payment platform, Google is starting to see interest from financial institutions by allowing them to save their credit/debit cards to the Google Wallet servers.
Discover is the first one to sign on, and what this means is that in the near future when you sign into your Discover account, there will be a button that allows you to link your card to your Google Wallet account.
Google has seen very little traction on Google Wallet, and has been working for months to rebrand itself.
Google Wallet faced a lot of problems, not the least of which was just how limited its access was. The only major carrier that supports it is Sprint, and that’s something that is not likely to change any time soon since Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile have joined up to create their own Google Wallet rival.
In addition, of course, users needed to have a phone with Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. That’s a huge limitation right now.
And finally, the only financial institution that supported Google Wallet was Citi. Users needed to link a Citi credit card; not even Citibank debit cards were eligible. There was an alternative way to get Google Wallet through a prepaid debit card, but that kind of defeats the purpose of making mobile payments simpler.
So this new move is great, but it might be too little, too late.
