Google Wallet May End Up Inside Your Actual Wallet 190
Several outlets are reporting, based on screenshots posted by Android Police that Google is (or "may be" — CNet calls the report "loosely sourced") about to introduce a lower-tech variant on its smartphone-based Google Wallet payment system. Instead of transferring payment information from an NFC-equipped phone, this would mean a physical payment card (like a conventional plastic credit or debit card), but one linked via Google's databanks to the user's existing bank or credit accounts. Upsides: less to carry, a simple way to suspend or cancel service on them (should the card be lost or stolen), and doesn't require you to carry your phone to make a credit or debit transaction — handy, since NFC readers are still thin on the ground. Downside: while perhaps no worse than putting the same information on your phone, it's one more step toward giving a third party all of your personal information in one place. A card that fits in a wallet probably makes a lot of sense: I live in a city with at least three pay-by-phone options in trials or fully available (CitiBank, Isis, and Google Wallet), but I can't buy ice cream or coffee with them yet. And there's no reason a card-shaped token couldn't use mag-stripes and NFC, too.
Re:Here's a radical idea: (Score:3, Funny)
I agree - I pay for everything with gold!
Re:cash (Score:5, Funny)
why you can't just pay in cash your coffee?.
Using currency is so last century. Might as well tie an onion to your belt grandpa.
Re:Around your ass... (Score:3, Funny)
Have you ever had refuse-smoked pigeon? Cook it low and slow, so the beer-soaked newspaper smoke can really get into the meat... nothing like it.
Re:Cash is expensive to handle (Score:3, Funny)
Cash takes extra record keeping. Cash takes somebody counting the drawer. Cash requires somebody to drive the deposit to the bank (or an armored car staff to pick it up). These may not be charges per transaction, but they're still things you'll have to pay someone to do when handling cash.