from Hacker News

Google Wallet leak shows off new physical credit cards

by chapel on 11/1/12, 10:51 PM with 43 comments

  • by Firehed on 11/2/12, 12:34 AM

    Huh. So I'll have one credit card to carry around that will just pass through the charge to another card I'm carrying around, because none of this stuff is yet reliable enough to abandon my wallet entirely.

    Sorry for the abrasive skepticism here... it's part of being in the industry. But I see one of two scenarios playing out here:

    1) Google becomes (buys/owns/works with/...) a proper Issuing Bank giving out real lines of credit for a credit card. They get interchange fees when you use your card, just like any other card issuer. No real value is added to the equation, and it's yet another service that Google offers which becomes a nightmare if you need to speak with a human - which when you're dealing with people's money is quite often. They may have a decently searchable web UI for your transaction history, but so does Mint.

    2) Google does some clever magic where they authorize one of your cards on file when you swipe your Wallet card, and just pass through the result. Because they still need to act as an issuing bank here, they either raise interchange over the real issuing bank of the actual card (store owner gets screwed), or charge the same or less and eat the loss. Presumably they'll make up this way by creepily using your purchase history.

    Neither of these scenarios does anything to move retailers closer to NFC adoption (actually useful for Google/Android), and I'm not sure how many people are willing to have some "one card to rule them all" thing going on, which is the only real benefit I see to the consumer here.

    Having my wallet 3mm thinner isn't enough benefit for me to not pick the best rewards card based on where I'm shopping, never mind the fact that I don't trust Google with my financial data (or, more accurately, I don't see any benefit in giving them access to it)

  • by shuzchen on 11/2/12, 1:01 AM

    I wonder how flexible you are in deciding what card you want their physical card to charge to? Do you log in and toggle the current card it's a proxy for? Or can you log in later that night and tell google wallet "charge that latte on the mastercard, charge that toy on the amex?". I'd be really excited if I could get one google card to replace some other cards, but one of the reasons I have multiple cards is to separate personal activity from my small business activity. It'd be really important for me to have those separate.

  • by ben1040 on 11/2/12, 12:17 AM

    So the recent change to Google Wallet to let you use any card you wanted basically worked by creating a virtual credit card that acted as a proxy, and transmitting that card number using NFC. When the charge hit that virtual card, they would then process a corresponding charge to your real card.

    It looks like they're going to give you the option of getting a physical representation of that proxy card.

    One thing I'm curious about though is how chargebacks get handled with this system. Say I have the proxy card pointing at my Amex, I go buy something, and Google forwarded the charge to my Amex. Now for whatever reason I need to do a chargeback. Who do I talk to, Google, or Amex? How would that even work?

  • by AndyIngram on 11/2/12, 12:27 AM

  • by ablefire on 11/2/12, 2:09 AM

    A way for Google to add value would be to distribute transactions efficiently/optimally among my existing accounts. If they know the terms, promotions and limits on my various cards and bank accounts then they can figure out that a particular transaction is most advantageous to me if it goes against Card A since it gets me a lower rate or a cash back or I have more head-room. Looking at transactions over time Google can predict and optimize how my spending gets allocated. I think I'd like that if it was done well.

  • by stevenwagner on 11/2/12, 2:55 AM

    Glad to hear I can just carry one reward card instead of card for every grocery store I visit. Glad to hear Ill be able to use google for person to person payments instead of paypal. Perhaps they will even get the same functionality as the bitinstant card.

    http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/08/20/bitinstant-may-brid...

  • by moocow01 on 11/2/12, 12:31 AM

    I'd use this and like it much more than the digital wallet.

    The idea of my phone dying and leaving me with no means of communication and no means of payment sounds like a good way to make a bad day go to much worse.

    As someone who travels frequently on business and is in places where I dont know a soul and arrive at sometimes odd hours - that scenario is terrifying to me.

  • by xoail on 11/2/12, 1:05 AM

    I would like to see Wallet Card act as a wrapper of all my cards and automatically figure out best card to use to charge ultimately based on balances, reward points and may be split charges between cards if required. But with this change in Google Wallet, NFC adoption among merchants will become even harder.

  • by drjenkins on 11/2/12, 12:40 AM

    The card will likely be reprogrammable using NFC to 'become' whichever card you choose. Several large banks have had this in the works for a while, but it seems like Google will beat them to it.

  • by soldermont001 on 11/2/12, 12:38 AM

    It would be nice if it could generate a new number for each transaction.

  • by tnuc on 11/2/12, 2:50 AM

    Wasn't the (future) physical card one of the things that they went on about when Google Wallet was initially launched?

  • by drcode on 11/2/12, 12:21 AM

    Note to Google: If the world hears about your new secure payment system via a LEAK you're off to pretty bad start.

  • by peppertree on 11/2/12, 12:11 AM

    I thought google wallet was supposed to replace the cards I carry, not adding another one to it.

  • by blhack on 11/2/12, 12:22 AM

    Looks like google wallet is a not-so-well-liked app:

    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...