Google Officially Updates Google Wallet To 4 No Wait 3 No Wait 2 Credit Card Brands

GoogleWallet,ISIS,American ExpressEarlier this week nibletz.com Co-Founder and Google extreme loyalist Cameron Wright, was bragging to me while we were on the road in Ohio, that Google Wallet was now a game-changer. He was finally excited that you could add any major credit card to Google’s NFC enabled “Google Wallet” product.

Today that is still the case however Google has come under fire by TechCrunch and SAI after it was learned, that they actually had no definitive agreement with American Express, and one other credit card carrier. They haven’t named the other credit card carrier but our sources tell us it starts with a D and ends in an R and has iscove in the middle.

While both American Express cards and the other cards are still available for use with Google Wallet either company can pull the plug at anytime. This TechCrunch story points specifically to American Express.

American Express is concerned with the transparency that Mastercard’s Pay Pass program provides to the customers. Currently Mastercard Pay Pass terminals are still the only terminals that are able to accept Google Wallet, regardless of which credit card provider your transaction goes to.

This isn’t meant to alarm anyone as Google Wallet is essentially a safe mobile commerce payment solution. American Express (and we will assume the other company as well), doesn’t like the amount of data that Mastercard Pay Pass provides.  Mastercard’s Pay Pass terminals only provide location and transaction amount back to credit card carriers outside of Mastercard.

While American Express has long been a partner of Google’s “Google Checkout” payment system, they never signed an agreement with Google specifically for Google Wallet. Earlier this year Google merged all of their payment products together under one umbrella, perhaps thinking that this merge would allow them to arbitrarily just use all four brands.


American Express’ Social Media VP Scott Minor told Chris Velazco at TechCrunch:

“We want to make sure Google’s mobile wallet product meets the standards we set for our Cardmembers in terms of transparency and clarity about transaction detail,” Minor said. “Right now, American Express does not have an agreement with Google for our cards to be used in the Google mobile wallet.”

It took a good part of  the day yesterday, but Google finally replied to Velazco’s request for a statement and said:

For many years, we’ve accepted American Express, Visa, MasterCard and Discover for online and mobile transactions. The latest version of Google Wallet extends these same benefits to people who choose to use the Google Wallet app to make purchases in-store. We are in active discussions with American Express and look forward to working together as partners as the world embraces digital payments.”

Google has been struggling with Google Wallet since they first launched the product via the Samsung Galaxy S and then the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. When it was released Google Wallet supported their own in-house prepaid credit card program along with Citibank MasterCards. While American Express and the “other” credit card carrier hash out the details of an agreement with Google, all four brands are still able to connect to Google Wallet and use via NFC.

We are well into the summer of 2012 and still waiting for the rollout of ISIS, the mobile payment service developed in concert with Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile .At South By Southwest earlier this year ISIS indicated that they would have markets up and testing during the Summer of 2012.

Linkage:

SAI Story

TC Story

Nibletz is the voice of startups “everywhere else”

We’d really love it if you would support us here.

 

 

Massachusetts Startup: iCache Releases Digital Wallet For iPhone

So far the only true NFC product available to smartphone users is Google Wallet. ISIS, the collaborative effort by AT&T, Verizon Wirless and T-Mobile is slated for a launch sometime this summer. However, Friday, iCache, a Massachusetts based mobile payment startup has released their GeoCard and iCache Geode Wallet.

This $200 accessory is part iPhone case, part card reader, part biometric security system and a whole lot of mobile wallet.

By now we have all realized that bar code scanning on a mobile phone is hit or miss, and anyone who has tried NFC has probably experienced that blank stare from the cashier like you just did the latest human chopping trick from David Copperfield’s arsenal before their very eyes.

Whether Google wants to admit it or not, we are still way ahead of the NFC curve and even further ahead of the NFC revolution.

In the meantime the folks at iCache have figured out safety, security and convenience with the Geode Wallet and GeoCard. The wallet supports all barcode based loyalty and reward cards and all magnetic stripe based credit cards.

For credit cards you simply use the enclosed credit card reader to extract your information to your phone. Then, when you want to use any of your credit cards, you select which one you want to use and it loads that cards info onto your Geode Card which is a rewritable magnetic stripe card. You have one card now, that’s safely and easily stored in the phone case that rewrites your info super quickly and securely onto your Geode Card.

What about safety and security?

The only way you can access the Geode Card on your wallet app is after use inning on using your finger print. Yes, iCache has included a biometric finger print reader. Only after your fingerprint is deleted can you access the wallet and the ability to rite write onto the rewritable card.

As for loyalty cards, they are just as easy. Simply take a picture of every barcode reward and loyalty card you’ve got and it captures the card information. Add a few notes if you would like and you’re ready to roll.

iCache already knows that barcodes are hit or miss on a smartphone or even iPhone screen with retina display, that’s why they’ve included an e-ink display on the back of the case which makes the barcodes as easy to read as on the cards themselves.

Now I know you’re thinking that $199 is a lot for any accessory but now that you really can leave the wallet at home, and it’s super secure, it’s worth every penny. iCache leaves no stone unturned.

Just don’t lose your phone.

Check it out for yourself at iCache.com

Google Acquires TxVia To Help Bring Google Wallet Into The Prepaid Space.

New York based TxVia has been working in the prepaid space since 2008. They reportedly handle over 100 million accounts and have partnerships with some of the biggest brands in the world.

Google announced on their Google Commerce Blog last week that they’ve acquired TxVia.  Google didn’t disclose any of the financials behind the deal.

Google’s VP of Wallet & Payments Osama Bedier said on the Google Commerce Blog:

“They’ve partnered with the industry’s best known brands, and their leadership team has played an instrumental role in defining the fast-growing prepaid card segment of emerging payments.”

Google is working relentlessly as of late, on refining the Google Wallet platform and trying to build scale as quick as they can before ISIS rolls out.

image

While Google has teamed up with the nation’s third largest carrier, Sprint, to roll out Google Wallet the other three carriers have teamed up to form ISIS another virtual wallet and checkout program.  ISIS has been successful in partnering with not only three of the for major carriers but some of the largest payment partners as well. For instance, Google’s current POS partner for Google Wallet  transactions is Mastercard’s Pay Pass.  ISIS on the other hand, has secured Verifone for their POS transactions.

According to Google TxVia has a payment network that is fast and reliable. 

It hasn’t been revealed what role TxVia will play in all of this.  Gift cards and prepaid cards have always been in the plans for Google Wallet.  It appears, that with this transaction, Google Wallet will be closer to rolling out more “funding” options for Google Wallet customers.

Source: Google Commerce Blog

Google Wallet Co-Founding Engineer Joins Square

Fresh on the heels of the departure of Google Wallet’s Jonathan Wall, co-founding Google Wallet engineer Rob von Behren has departed the internet giant as well.

In what von Behren categorized as an unplanned move, he has left Google entirely for Square’s San Francisco office. von Behren told the NFC Times:

“When I left the Google Wallet project in January, I fully expected to stop working in payments but to remain at Google,” he said. “After meeting the team at Square, however, I decided to do the opposite. Square is doing some great things in the payment space. They have a strong leadership team and a culture that fosters innovation.”

Square’s current solution doesn’t rely on NFC. They manufacture a dongle that connects to your Android smartphone or iPhone and allows small businesses to purchase credit card transactions by swiping a card through the dongle.

Square has just re-released their consumer app which is now called “Pay with Square”. This payment method allows people to pay without submitting a card for swiping.

The app uses geolocation to identify account holders in proximity. This would be a really good place to start looking for NFC integration.

source: NFC Times

Synapse And Start Up Viableware Develop Mobile Payment Platform For Restaurants

As payments go more and more mobile the next industry that should naturally heat up is restaurants and hospitality.

Although it’s not a rampant issue there have been cases where restaurant employees have been able to swipe and clone customers credit cards and then sold the information on line or used it later to commit credit card fraud. Viableware’s new RAIL system will eliminate than once it’s implemented on a larger scale.

More after the break
Read More…

#CES2012 Intel, Ultrabooks, Isis, and Gemalto: is this the year of NFC?

Our good friend Sylvie Barak was quoted on the Gemalto blog 
Intel demos NFC on an ultrabook: tap your credit card on your laptop touchpad to pay. #AWESOME #CES #eet_CES
Personally I don’t see making payments with a laptop being an option that many people would adopt. Bringing the ability for retailers, small businesses, or the average consumer to accept payments via built-in NFC hardware is an entirely different matter. We have already begun to witness the downfall of the traditional payment options and watched as first PayPal then Square knocked down the payment barriers.
With Google Wallet and Isis using NFC payments and PayPal by phone at Home Depot stores (without NFC) and NFC payments in Sweden  it is clear we have almost arrived at a new paradigm in the ability to accept payments. When your smartphone can act as a terminal for both positive and negative cash flow, without any additional hardware, the benefits will market themselves.
Last year I heard over and over “2011 is the year of NFC (in the U.S.)” beginning at CES. I was not clear on why people were making that statement at the time. If I remember correctly, there were no high-profile devices announced in Las Vegas last year.  The Nexus S had been announced in November the previous year, sure, but that was it. There was extremely limited NFC functionality for the end-user at the time.