Tag: Pay

What’s the Difference Between Google Wallet and Pay

Google has confusing named products, and that might be most apparent with Google Wallet and Google Pay. These two apps have taken a convoluted path to get where they are today. So, which one should you be using?

RAYMOND OGLESBY @RaymondOglesby2
December 15, 2022

Google has confusing named products, and that might be most apparent with Google Wallet and Google Pay. These two apps have taken a convoluted path to get where they are today. So, which one should you be using?

This is for diPhone and Android. Screenshots are from iPhone XR running iOS 16+

Dilbert and Rumor
Copyright Scott Adams, Inc./Distributed by Universal Uclick for UFS

Both Google Wallet and Pay have seen some pretty drastic revamps over the years. Their purposes have changed a lot and confused many people in the process. Let’s see what these products have to offer.

Some History

You may be surprised to learn that the original version of Google Wallet was introduced way back in 2011. The service was primarily for sending money to people and there was a physical Google Wallet credit card as well.

The Google Wallet card allowed people to pay for things in physical and online stores with the funds in their accounts. This was before mobile payments with tap-to-pay were widely supported. The Wallet card was a very clever solution.

Eventually, tap-to-pay gained enough traction that Google launched Android Pay in 2015. It maintained Google Wallet and Android Pay separately until 2018 when the two were combined into a single service called Google Pay. The Wallet card was discontinued in 2016.

Then, in 2020, Google Pay got a massive overhaul with a bunch of new features. All of Google’s mobile payment services were under one umbrella… for a while. In the summer of 2022, the service was split in two, with the Google Wallet branding making a return.

That’s where things stand as of September 2022. Google Pay and Google Wallet exist as two separate products; sometimes. More on that later.

Google Wallet

Google Wallet can most easily be summed up by its name; it’s a digital wallet. You can add credit cards, debit cards, loyalty cards, transportation passes, event tickets, vaccine cards, and gift cards.

Basically, Google Wallet is for paying for things online and in physical stores with tap-to-pay. It features a very simple interface that shows your cards, tickets, and passes. Google Wallet is only available for Android since the iPhone does not allow non-Apple apps for tap-to-pay.

Google Wallet can generally be used with any card reader that has an Apple Wallet, Google Pay, or the contactless tap-to-pay icon. For online purchases, look for the Google Pay or Google Wallet buttons at checkout. It will take some time for the Wallet branding to replace Google Pay. Refer to the below image:

Google 4-5
Google Wallet

Google Pay

Google Pay received a massive overhaul in 2020, and it’s pretty much the same experience now. The tap-to-pay functionality is still present in Google Pay, but that’s not the only thing it can do.

The Google Pay app has peer-to-peer payments, shopping deals, cashback offers, and a full-blown banking experience with personal finance insights. You can think of Pay as a combination of services similar to Venmo, PayPal, RetailMeNot, and Mint.

Unlike Google Wallet, Google Pay is available on both Android and iPhone. The tap-to-pay functionality does not work on the iPhone, but the other features do. It’s a feature-packed app that tries to do a lot of things. In fact, it might be too much for some people, which is why Google Wallet exists. See the below image:

Google 1-3
Google Pay

Which App to Use?

Depending on where you live, you may not even need to decide which app to use. Google Pay and Google Wallet only exist side-by-side in the U.S. and Singapore. In every other country, Google Wallet entirely replaced Google Pay, and India does not have Wallet at all (as of September 2022).

Google Pay can do everything Google Wallet can do, but Google Wallet can not do everything Google Pay can do. If you are in a country that has both, you can choose between the full experience (Pay) or just mobile payments (Wallet). There’s no reason to have both.

Use Google Pay if you want peer-to-peer payments, deals, rewards, or personal finance tools. If you only care about mobile payments, Google Wallet is a much more streamlined experience for that. The choice is even simpler for iPhone users; Google Pay is the only option.

In closing, Google Wallet is for mobile payments, Google Pay is for mobile payments, and more. In the author’s opinion, it’s still too complicated.

-Courtesy of other tech blog posts

Quote For the Day

Books don’t need batteries.

Nadine Gordimer

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How to View Chrome Saved Credit Card Numbers

If you need to check, update, or delete your credit card numbers saved by Google Chrome’s Autofill feature, it’s easy to do so using the browser’s payment method settings.

RAYMOND OGLESBY @RaymondOglesby2
February 10, 2022

If you need to check, update, or delete your credit card numbers saved by Google Chrome’s Autofill feature, it’s easy to do so using the browser’s payment method settings. Let’s explore how this is done.

This is for devices running Google Chrome

Dilbert and Explain
Copyright Scott Adams, Inc./Distributed by Universal Uclick for UFS

First, open Google Chrome on your Mac, PC, or Linux computer. In any Chrome window, click the three vertical dots button in the top right-hand corner. In the menu, click Settings. Refer to the below image:

Credit Card 1

Accessing Settings

Next, click the Autofill option in the sidebar, and select Payment methods. See the below image:

Credit Card 2
Accessing Payment methods

Now, look for a subsection also called Payment methods near the bottom of the window. If Chrome has previously saved any credit cards, they will be listed here. To see more information on any card, click the three-dots button beside it. See the following image:

Credit Card 3
Accessing more information about the card

Next, in the small menu, select the Edit option. Refer to the below image:

Credit Card 4
Accessing to Edit the card

Now, in the Edit card pop-up window, you can see the full number of the credit card, its expiration date, the name on the card, and the card’s nickname. See the below image:

Credit Card 5
Editing the card information and Save your change(s)

While on the card’s edit screen, you can make changes to the stored card information if necessary, or copy and paste the information to another destination. When you are done making changes, click Save. If you have a problem saving your card information, you will see a small pop-up window at the bottom center of the screen regarding an error.

Back on the Payment methods screen, if you would like to add a new credit card that Chrome will use in Autofill, click the Add button. Or if you would like to delete a credit card saved in Google Chrome, click the three-dots button beside the card in the list and select the Remove option. See the following image:

Credit Card 6
Add a new card or remove an existing one

Next, close the Settings tab, and you are good to go. Any time you need to refer to your stored cards again, just revisit Google Chrome:

Settings > Autofill > Payment Methods

Managing Google Pay

If you are logged into a Google account in Chrome and have a credit card linked to Google Pay, you will see it listed. Google Pay is primarily used for mobile payments with your credit, debit, or loyalty cards. You can tap your phone to contactless readers to make payments.  Open:

Settings > Autofill > Payment methods

To view details about a Google Pay-linked card, click the icon beside it (that looks like a square with an arrow inside it), and the Google Pay website will open. Refer to the below image:

Credit Card 7
Accessing a Google Pay credit card

Now, if you have a balance on the card, you will not be able to view the entire credit card number like you can with a card that was stored by Autofill locally (see section above). But you can view the last four digits and expiration date. See the below image where we are on the Google Pay website but we do not have an account balance:

Credit Card 8
The Google Pay website

You can also add or remove a stored card on the Google Pay website by clicking Remove or Add Payment Method.

Quote For the Day

Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.

Warren Buffett

You are finished. Please feel free to share this post! One way to share is via Twitter.

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Checkout TechSavvy.Life for blog posts on smartphones, PCs, and Macs! You may email us at contact@techsavvy.life for comments or questions.

I Would Like to Hear From You

Please feel free to leave a comment. I would love to hear from you. Do you have a computer or smart device tech question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry. Just send an email to contact@techsavvy.life. Please mention the device, app, and version you are using. To help us out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.

Author’s E-book

You can access the e-book from a Kindle device, the Kindle App for the desktop or smartphone, which is a free app.

The author’s Vietnam eBook on the Battle for Tra Bong Vietnam: Events and Aftermath
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