As of now, Google Pay supports UPI based payment only, but it is taking a step ahead and is testing the contactless NFC payment method in India. With this new feature enabled, G-pay users can now add their debit cards and credit cards number for day-to-day transactions. This feature is similar to Samsung Pay and will help the users make quick payments without punching pin code. The development was reported by Android Police first.
The Google support page shares more information on how one can add a card to Google Pay, and the application will follow the process of tokenization to clear direct payment to merchants. To directly send or receive payments for general users, one has to still link a bank account to set it as a default payment method.
Once the user enters his/her card credentials successfully, G-pay will create a virtual account number known as a token that will replace the cardâs original number. As per the reports, only Axis Visa cards and SBI Visa Cards can be added to your payment options, excluding international cards. However, there is no confirmation on how many cards can be used on G-pay. The Google support page is already updated with contactless NFC payment information.Â
After the feature is enabled to all users, users can make contactless NFC payments at the NFC-enabled terminal. Users will be able to make three kinds of payments â NFC, Bharat QR, and in-app merchants. To maintain the bank credential security, the user will have to register their card number every time they change their phone or reset it.
The portal has also found a Reddit thread where users have commented that they have seen the featured pop-up on their G-pay application last month, which reflects that the option is currently server-side rollout and available only for a set of users.
Google announced the launch of NFC based payment system last year, at one of their Google events in India. G-pay already has the contactless NFC payment features enabled in other countries, but because G-pay in India is separate from its counterparts in different countries and needs to tie up with banks, the card payment option was unavailable here.
As we move more into the era of digitalization, many technologies are developed to make human lives easier. According to the company, they have 67 million monthly active users in India. The contactless NFC payment system by Google Pay will help users to save their time from the hassle of punching PIN codes at counters. It will also allow individuals to go cashless for shopping.
