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What if you could send money simply by “attaching” it to an E-Mail? The idea seems so obvious and elegant, it makes logging into PayPal seem like brain surgery. Although it may have flown under the radar, this is an actual service Google has just announced at IO 2013 and it’s ready for your enjoyment. Or the receiving party’s enjoyment, rather.
You’ve got to be 18 years of age or older and must be signed up for Google Wallet, so it isn’t quite as easy as loading up GMail, but it isn’t that far away, either.
I personally use PayPal for a multitude of purposes (many business related) and am shocked when other people don’t have PayPal. How do they accomplish simple online tasks like reimbursing friends for concert tickets? Apparently (unlike me) with cash, a check, or “I’ll get your next few rounds of beers.”
Right now the feature is only available for GMail on the desktop, but this seems like a service that would be extremely useful on Gmail’s native mobile clients as well. Don’t go poking around Android trying to attach money to your e-mails just yet, but hopefully we’ll see this as an attachment option in the future. Would you find this feature convenient? Has anyone seen this option pop up in their Gmail account?
[polldaddy poll=7106727]
We’ll continue poking around to see what other announcements have been made surrounding Google IO that didn’t sneak their way into the keynote, so stay tuned!
[Via ChromeSpot]
Is google taking a percentage of the funds?
I’d assume so. Unless you know a service that allows for free money transfers.
Bank accounts themselves do. Hmm…
Banks do charge for international transfers though, AFAIK.
From : http://www.google.com/wallet/send-money/
“It’s free to send money from your Google Wallet Balance or directly from your bank account.”
However, they charge a fee for credit card transfers.
Exactly the way PayPal started. Then they eventually started charging transaction fees.
I don’t see any competing service around that charges less than what Google is charging though. Google essentially is charging cost ($.30/transaction on credit/debit cards) because they really want the information on your purchasing habits, unlike PayPal who needed to turn a profit on the service. It’s one thing to sell advertising based on what people view. Advertisers will pay a lot more to market based on what people are actually buying….a whole lot more! Google doesn’t need to make money from the fees. They just need to break even.
Would really suck if someone hacks your gmail.
Exactly. Thank you for making me not the only person afraid of this.
Do you need to have google wallet to recieve the money or how does it work?
No. Scarlett Johansson will just bring it to your door in cash.
Can you tip her for the service?
;-P
Yes. Once the funds are claimed via their Google Wallet the person can then either leave them there for purchases/sending, or transfer the funds to their bank account.
Does the option show up for any of you?
Heres to hoping the Nigerian Prince can cooperate with the Bank of Nigeria and get me my 15 Million Dollars
Brilliant, simply brilliant. No fee for receiving money, fee is on sender the way it should be. Dear eBay, please incorporate this as an option.
Nice; for the 4 phones that support google wallet.
Google Wallet isn’t just the mobile Wallet app. There’s a difference. Google Wallet also works on the web. http://www.google.com/wallet/ The more you know….
Great if you live in the U.S. Sucks for the rest of us. As usual.
So what if they charge a fee? Who doesn’t now-a-days? It’s the American way. lol
I was chatting with a Wallet rep over in their sandbox at IO. I’m not sure it’s quite so easy yet. Although the video says the recipient does not need a gmail account, the rep said otherwise. Not only that, if you do send money, the recipient will have to sign up for a Wallet account if they don’t already have one. This is going to highly confuse my mother if I send her money.
But here’s the big kicker. As of right now, even if you attach your bank account to Wallet, you cannot deposit funds that you’ve received from someone else into your bank account. You also can’t use those funds in another Wallet silo (Play store, for example). So basically the only thing you can do right now with received funds, is send those funds to someone else via gmail.
I’m left wondering what the purpose of this new feature is. At least in what appears to be a beta phase.
Well, according to Google on the Google Wallet site (http://www.google.com/wallet/faq.html#tab=faq-send):
“Once you’ve claimed money, the money will be available in your Google Wallet Balance. You will be able to use your Balance to send money to other people, transfer to your bank account, or use it to purchase on Google Play.”
“You can transfer money from your Google Wallet Balance to your bank account by adding your bank account to Google Wallet, under “Payment Methods” at wallet.google.com. After you’ve added your bank account, you can transfer money from the same page. Please note it may take a few days for the transfer to complete.”
This directly contradicts your post. In addition, anyone with an Android phone who has ever bought anything from Google Play has a Google Wallet account. This essentially is more flexible than even PayPal, and signing up for an account, even over the web (for those without a device with Google Play Store), is just as easy as PayPal.
I believe I said “as of right now.” I have no doubt that’s how it’s intended to work at some point. It was straight from the mouth of a Wallet rep. So take it up with him. I’ll wait until the service does what days on the tin.
Papal is not the only competitor to this service. I can pay anyone from my online banking service, and it requires nothing on the recipient’s side.
If this takes off enough to become commonplace, expect your inbox to be full of phishing scams made out to look exactly like that “Claim money” box.