NatWest Rooster & Google Pay

Mahone1302

I was wondering whether anybody is having the same issues I'm currently having with my teenagers (13 year old) NatWest Rooster account. The account is advertised as being compatible with Google Pay, allowing teenagers to use their mobile phones to make contactless payments. I have followed all of the instructions on the Rooster app to set this up, including verifying my son's age with identification, which Rooster have accepted. 

Unfortunately when clicking the 'Add to Google Pay' button in the app, we are presented with a message saying "You don't meet the age restrictions for using Google Pay in your country." We get a similar message when trying to install the Google Wallet app from the Play Store. 

Having done some research, it seems that whilst Google Accounts are available to children (must be parent managed if under 13) Google Pay (and thus Google Wallet) is not available to anybody under the age of 16 in the UK.

(See here for Google Pay Terms of Service: https://payments.google.com/payments/apis-secure/u/0/get_legal_document?ldt=googlepaytos#:~:text=(a) Age Restrictions.,years of age or older.)

Despite telling Rooster support this, they are insisting that the service is available to their customers and the issue we are experiencing must be down to either my sons account being set up in the wrong country or to the incorrect age. Neither are true, it holds his correct date of birth and is a UK account. They keep sending me links to pages saying that Google Accounts are available to anybody over the age of 13 - this isn't in dispute!

I've tried searching Google for more info but all I can find is the odd thread with other people having the same issue over the past few years, and no solution. In all honesty I'm not convinced that there is a solution.