Andre Yoskowitz
10 Sep 2015 21:36
Google has announced the official U.S. launch of Android Pay, the mobile payments tech that will allow you to use your phone to pay at millions of retail locations.
The company says the service is live now, but will be rolling out in the coming days.
To use Android Pay, you need an NFC-enabled Android device with Android 4.4 or later. The service supports credit and debit cards from AmEx, Discover, MasterCard and Visa as well as gift cards, loyalty cards and store cards. Notably, most of the largest banks are supported but Wells Fargo, Capital One and Citi are "coming soon."
In regards to security, Google was very quick to note how secure using the service will be: "We know how important it is to keep your personal and financial information secure, so Android Pay is supported by industry standard tokenization. This means your real credit or debit card number isn't sent with your payment. Instead, we'll use a virtual account number that provides an extra layer of security. As soon as you make a purchase, you'll see a payment confirmation that shows where a given transaction happened, so it's easy to catch any suspicious activity. And if your phone is ever lost or stolen, simply use Android Device Manager to instantly lock your device from anywhere, secure it with a new password, or even wipe it clean of your personal information."
Source:
Google