Paying with your Phone

zerog

On one of my non-UK cards, I had a promo offering 5% cashback on Google pay transactions. This is a country where cash is king for many types of transactions.

I used Google pay to make a transaction equivalent to over £900 - this was in a shop where the preferred payment method is cash, and they added a 1% surcharge for card payment (which was offset by the 5% cashback). The look on their faces when a single beep was sufficient to authorise the transaction...

However I won't be using any sort of mobile payment without a promotion, just like the only reason I use cards to pay in the first place is rewards points or cashback.

I always have a wallet because I prefer to carry my driving licence around as ID in case of an accident. And if I'm carrying that I might as well carry a bank card plus some emergency cash. I see the benefit of using a watch to pay and not needing a phone at all, but I don't see the benefit in having a smart watch in the first place.

After that promo ended I deactivated Google pay because I prefer not to use a lock screen on my phone, and having to constantly unlock it (because removing the lock resulted in Google pay deactivating itself) was annoying. Also it's easier to get my wallet and card out than my phone, which is usually on airplane mode when I'm not using it since I have no friends who would call me.

I'm not too worried about the privacy issue because if I really wanted to be private I would use cash. I have about 17 google accounts and none of them are in my real name, and I have a separate one for each of my devices, so the cards that I used in Google pay were not . Google probably knows they are linked because they access the internet from the same IP when I'm at home.

I also had a Revolut promo which offered some cashback for using Google pay on TfL. This was more trouble than it was worth on the ticket barriers, so I won't be using it again even with another promo given the low value and needing to re-add the card before each journey, as I don't want to keep the lock screen active.

Syman

i have gpay and on the few occasions i have used it had no problems.
I might use it more if my credit card provider supported it.

I almost always carry a wallet, and on the odd occasion i don't, then Gpay is handy.

The curve card looks interesting, but it would be a resolution to a problem i don't really have.

xlnc99

zerog wrote: »

On one of my non-UK cards, I had a promo offering 5% cashback on Google pay transactions. This is a country where cash is king for many types of transactions.

I used Google pay to make a transaction equivalent to over £900 - this was in a shop where the preferred payment method is cash, and they added a 1% surcharge for card payment (which was offset by the 5% cashback). The look on their faces when a single beep was sufficient to authorise the transaction...

However I won't be using any sort of mobile payment without a promotion, just like the only reason I use cards to pay in the first place is rewards points or cashback.

I always have a wallet because I prefer to carry my driving licence around as ID in case of an accident. And if I'm carrying that I might as well carry a bank card plus some emergency cash. I see the benefit of using a watch to pay and not needing a phone at all, but I don't see the benefit in having a smart watch in the first place.

After that promo ended I deactivated Google pay because I prefer not to use a lock screen on my phone, and having to constantly unlock it (because removing the lock resulted in Google pay deactivating itself) was annoying. Also it's easier to get my wallet and card out than my phone, which is usually on airplane mode when I'm not using it since I have no friends who would call me.

I'm not too worried about the privacy issue because if I really wanted to be private I would use cash. I have about 17 google accounts and none of them are in my real name, and I have a separate one for each of my devices, so the cards that I used in Google pay were not . Google probably knows they are linked because they access the internet from the same IP when I'm at home.

I also had a Revolut promo which offered some cashback for using Google pay on TfL. This was more trouble than it was worth on the ticket barriers, so I won't be using it again even with another promo given the low value and needing to re-add the card before each journey, as I don't want to keep the lock screen active.

how do you find out about these promotions using google pay? Ive never had a notificaiton or email about any promotions. alot of people on this thread go on about promotions and cash back Where are these hidden gems?

xlnc99

Syman wrote: »

i have gpay and on the few occasions i have used it had no problems.
I might use it more if my credit card provider supported it.

I almost always carry a wallet, and on the odd occasion i don't, then Gpay is handy.

The curve card looks interesting, but it would be a resolution to a problem i don't really have.

i would have though most if not all major credit cards would be ok to use for google pay. What CC company is yours from?

Syman

xlnc99 wrote: »

i would have though most if not all major credit cards would be ok to use for google pay. What CC company is yours from?

Sainsbury bank Mastercard.

Willing2Learn

@xlnc99,

FYI

3 major mobile payment security risks, and how to avoid them

colsten

zerog wrote: »

I don't see the benefit in having a smart watch in the first place.

It's horses for course, as always. For some people, a smart watch is incredibly useful for a variety of reasons, such as heart rate monitoring, taking an ECG without needing to go to a doctor/nurse, automatic emergency calling in case of a fall, setting alarms, monitoring your daily steps, recording your walks and runs, timing an activity, listening to radio or music when out and about, making phone calls without needing the phone, and last but not least paying for all sorts of things, including buses, trains and underground. To you, none of this will be of interest. Many millions of people around the world are interested as they do have a use for it.

colsten

Syman wrote: »

The curve card looks interesting, but it would be a resolution to a problem i don't really have.

Curve only supports Google Pay and Samsung Pay so far. They promise support for ApplePay "real soon".

xlnc99

Willing2Learn wrote: »

@xlnc99,

FYI

3 major mobile payment security risks, and how to avoid them

thanks for that. From what i have read although there are risks for anything. Nothing is foolproof in life. However the three risk on this article i believe are very very low risk in comparison to other things. ALso even if a hacker could hack your phone i believe the max they could use is a 30 pound limit and nothing too expensive as they would require chip and pin.

soulsaver

Speedster2 wrote: »

No. The connection is made to the merchant’s terminal by NFC, same as the embedded loop in a contactless debit card.

OK Here's a tip that may help some, avoiding having to bring a wallet of card(s) as well as your phone for small contactless payments even for a phone without NFC (or even if your battery goes flat.. (:

If you've got one of those protective cases to stop breaking the glass if dropped, put a contactless card inbetween between the back of the case and your phone...

The card machine receives through the case!

It's what I do 'cos I bought my smart phone without realising that the better security would tempt me to pay-with-phone and avoid carrying cards... then to discover that it didn't have NFC functionality.

The irony is my old phone which doesn't have finger print & facial recog ...does have NFC!:o