A Quick Look at PayPass technology & the Google Wallet: Enabling You To Use Your Mobile Phone as your Credit Card

by Mario Armstrong

If you’re following me on Twitter, you may have noticed that I’m all over television, radio and even the web today talking about what’s new in mobile payments. There’s so much to talk about with this new tech, which if you haven’t been keeping up is all about using your phone as a credit card, finally becoming a reality. Two  key pieces to make this happen are MasterCards PayPass technology, without this NFC infrastructure mobile payments wouldn’t be happening right now. MasterCard has over 150,000 merchants using this technology in the US & 300,000 places globally. Stores ranging from McDonalds to Macys are embracing the PayPass technology & more stores will certainly be rolling this out. The other is Google’s Wallet software, which is where you store and access your credit card information, get offers & can manage your spending limits.

Google Wallet mobile app is for right right now only on the Google Nexus S 4G phone from Sprint, but over the next few months Google will be rolling the software out to other Android smartphones (and who knows, maybe even Android tablets like the Dell Streak 7 I’m giving away over at Small Biz Go Mobile!)

Unlike other apps you might be used to, Google Wallet can only be launched with a PIN number. So pick a good one! Once inside you’ll see the different parts of Wallet — a place where you can access your credit cards or prepaid Google card, Google Offers which brings you special deals and coupons, and a place to store your rewards cards. Really, the app is replacing almost everything in your Wallet except  your drivers license! So when my Online Editor Shy wrote that it’s time to throw away your wallet, he wasn’t kidding!

Unlike your real wallet, Google’s version automatically locks itself after a period of time which you can configure. This means that nobody can use your credit card or change your settings without that PIN! so be sure to pick a good one.

Wallet was released last week, so if you’ve got a Nexus S and are on Sprint, what are you waiting for? Start using your phone as your wallet today!