Google’s “Pony Express” project will let you pay bills from your Gmail inbox
Bills — we all hate them. Anything that tells you “your money is ours and you must pay, or else” is the enemy of our enemy. But they must be paid, and according to the latest rumors Google is looking to make the process of paying it simple.
They’re calling it Pony Express, a codename for sure, and it’ll do more than just group all your bills into their own folder on Gmail. Google is actually planning to let you pay those bills directly from within Gmail, if the information Re/Code obtained is accurate.
Above are a couple of sample screenshots Google is using internally to envision what the user interface would look like. You’ll see who the bill is from, how much is owed and which date payment is due by. Diving into the email can show you more details, and in some cases will ask you if you want to pay. There will even be a feature that lets you automatically split bills between yourself and, say, a spouse or roommate.
The service would require some personal information on part of the user, such as your credit card number, name, address and even your social security number. Sounds like a nightmare for an information company such as Google to have, right?
That’s the cost of convenience these days, though. Verification is done through a trusted median called Identico (and you should note that Google already collects a lot of this information for those who use Google Wallet). It’s likely the extent of the information needed is due to combat any type of fraud that a user might be susceptible to.
Google is apparently aiming to launch the service around the fourth quarter of this year, and they’re said to be in the process of lining up third-party companies who want to make this route of paying bills available to their customers. Would you opt-in should this come to pass?