Now, Google Pay is bringing NFC-based card payments in India
Last year in September, Google announced the plan to introduce tokenized cards in Google Pay, its dedicated service for peer-to-peer transfers. The capability should have been rolled out last year itself, but we didn't hear much about it back then. Now, the internet giant is finally changing that and taking the new option to its users in India. Here's all about it.
Option to add credit/debit cards in Google Pay
Since its launch, Google Pay has solely relied on bank account-based Unified Payments Interface (UPI) for money transfers and merchant payments. With the introduction of new tokenized cards, the service is finally giving its users the option of adding credit and debit cards as payment methods, expanding beyond setting up a UPI account for making Google Pay payments.
How this will be useful?
Once you add your credit or debit card, Google Pay will let you use it for NFC-based contactless payments, where you can simply tap at an NFC-enabled POS terminal and pay. Beyond that, the option will also work for QR code-based payments at merchants, mobile recharges, and online payments where Google Pay is accepted as an option of payment.
All information would be secured with digital tokens
All the card details saved by the user on Google Pay will be secured using digital tokens. This way, once you initiate a payment, these identifiers will be shared with the payment gateway instead of the credit or debit card number. Also, the digital tokens will be stored locally on your phone and have to be set up afresh after every Google Pay install.
Only select users are getting card payments at the moment
Currently, only a handful of Google Pay users have access to the option of adding tokenized credit/debit cards. The company appears to be following a phased roll-out approach, with just two banks' visa cards supported: Axis bank credit and debit cards and SBI credit cards. However, Sajith Sivanandan, the Business Head at Google Pay, has confirmed to Gadgets360 that "more issuers [are] coming soon."
