Google Unveils Wallet And Offers: An Open Platform For Mobile Payments

Important development with profound ramifications for Moneeey Inc, …. enabling offers and payment using granular money substitutes

…With Wallet, you’ll be able to add your existing credit cards though only Mastercard is a partner right now of the major card companies. And it’s a wallet you can lock, Tilenius notes. There are multiple levels of security. There’s the phone lock, a required Google pin, credit card information encryption, and your credit card number is never fully displayed.Right off the bat, Google Wallet will work with Mastercard Paypass. This means right now 300,000 merchants around the world and 120,000 in the U.S. are technically ready though it’s not rolling out everywhere yet. It will initially work with “Gcard” a Google pre-paid card set up by Mastercard.The initial trials will be in San Francisco and New York. Tilenius says this will expand nationally in the coming months.The other component of the announcement is Google Offers. These work seamlessly with Google Wallet. You find an offer you want, save it to Wallet with a click and you’re ready. You can redeem them by tapping the phone at the point of sale. Or you can show the offer to a cashier.Initially, Macy’s, Subway, Walgreens, Toys R Us, and more are partners. The first trial programs will be in San Francisco, New York, and Portland this summer.Tilenius notes that the first offers will be “offer of the day” but notes that “this is just the tip of the iceberg.” Eventually, there will be check-in offers, offer ads ads on Google that are really offers that you can easily transfer to Wallet, and others.

via Google Unveils Wallet And Offers: An Open Platform For Mobile Payments.