
Google Shutting Down Wallet Card - smharris65
http://www.google.com/wallet/card/#faq
======
grahamburger
This is the first of Google's product cancellations that will affect me
personally. My wife and I have been using Google Wallet cards for budgeting -
we transfer our spending money to the cards each week to help track our
spending. Honestly there's no reason Google Wallet was superior for this - I
expect Simple will solve our problems better anyway. Should have seen this
coming when they split it off of Android Pay.

~~~
noobiemcfoob
+1 for Simple!

~~~
sync
-1 for Simple. Not refunding ATM fees is ridiculous for a bank that has no physical ATMs. Also, things like this: "Your Simple Visa® Card will not function on August 6th from 2:00 - 9:00 am EST"

~~~
trevorg75
They have ATMs everywhere. And newsflash traditional banks cards do the same
thing, they are just less transparent about it.

~~~
untog
I bank with Ally, who refund my ATM fees no matter where I go. I don't see why
I would switch to Simple.

~~~
newjersey
Caution: there is a $10 limit on ATM fee reimbursements iirc.

Relevant discussion on Reddit pf

[https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/3ck2rr/all...](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/3ck2rr/ally_bank_checking_account_changing_unlimited_atm/)

~~~
untog
Yes, I'm aware of that, thanks. I haven't yet ever come up against that limit,
thankfully.

------
dogma1138
Am I the only one who hears about like 75% of Google's products for the first
time only when they issue EOL/EOS notices?

~~~
itcrowd
You're not the only one, which is exactly the problem.

PS: I've never heard of this service either.

~~~
hga
Of course, many of us have stopped promoting new Google services because we've
seen the fate of too many. Among other things, we don't want to have Google's
increasingly bad reputation for this rub off on us.

~~~
cheriot
Is that really any different that promoting a startup's product? Somebody has
to try new things and shut down a large percentage of them. I'm surprised HN
is so against it. Perhaps google should distinguish services that have long
term commitments from those that don't?

~~~
hga
I think your second sentence has got it: Google is not a startup, and it
should distinguish between startup like experiments and things they are making
a long term commitment to. And even then G+ shows they won't be perfect, but
they can at least try.

------
dheera
The Wallet Card was invented for places that don't take Android Pay, to pay in
the form of a regular credit/debit card. Unfortunately, this is useless
because it is the same level of (in)convenience as a credit card, and doesn't
offer the 2-5% cashback that all the other cards I have do.

Even if a store accepted NFC-based Android Pay, I'd probably still opt to pull
out my plastic card for the cashback and consumer protection. Google/Apple Pay
need to find a way to weave benefits into their systems if they want to win
the market.

~~~
seanp2k2
Where are you getting 5% cash back? Highest I've seen is Chase Sapphire with
their points which are worth 2-3%. Highest straight cash back I've seen is
Citi DoubleCash at 2%.

~~~
mafuyu
Chase Freedom has 5% cash back on certain categories that change throughout
the year.

~~~
robryan
How does that work? If credit card fees are well under 5%.

~~~
dallbee
Sure, fees are under 5%, but what about that one month that you didn't pay off
your bill in full? Enjoy that ~30% interest rate on your account balance.

~~~
BHSPitMonkey
1) Chase Freedom's APR tends to be around 20% 2) If you only carry a balance
(or part of it) for one month (as in your example) and then pay it off the
next month, your interest charge is nowhere close to the APR (and it's only
calculated against the portion you didn't pay off).

------
dashoffset
Google Reader thought me long ago not to depend or invest much time on Google
services. Nowadays the only product that would cause me a huge problem if they
decide to cancel it is Gmail.

~~~
danieldk
Unlikely. Though I could see them disabling IMAP and/or SMTP for consumer
GMail.

~~~
rurban
Hardly. They'd rather cancel POP first.

A long-term IMAP storage is legally needed for the spooks to read your email
in real-time. With POP they don't have the legal excuses, so they cannot read
it. Only what's left over there.

~~~
danieldk
_A long-term IMAP storage is legally needed for the spooks to read your email
in real-time._

There is an API for that:
[https://developers.google.com/gmail/api/guides/push#stopping...](https://developers.google.com/gmail/api/guides/push#stopping_mailbox_updates)

------
CullingTheHerd
I think there is a dynamic being left out of the conversation here (and do
please correct me if this has been brought already). There is certainly a
story in that "yet another Google service is being shut down." But, let's
rewind a bit.

All these services that Google has or will eventually shut down were at one
time at the "go/no go" stage. When Google was still a start-up that "go/no go"
decision might be based off of resources or a particular group of programmers
passion. Now a mature company, this decision is generally made based on
calculations as to how a particular project will fit into the overall
portfolio and impact the bottom line.

Some projects, no matter how much a passionate group of programmers might
lobby, may never get off the ground because there isn't a sufficient argument
in terms of the larger picture. But, and here I finally get to my point, some
projects are surely proposed purely to protect the bottom line from
competitors or to hedge against changes in the marketplace; i.e. Google+ was
purely to protect against the trend of Facebook becoming a growing percentage
of a user's on-line experience and walling off content to Google's search
engine.

Another example, still unfolding, is that of their Nest acquisition. And this
is where the real damage gets done. Google sees the growth of the IOT market,
and so acquires Nest so as to get a foothold into that market.

Now both Google+ and Nest are dying horrible, slow, shot in the stomach movie
deaths, and everyone is forced to watch. What could have been accomplished by
the engineers working on these projects if their primary goal was to serve a
remote master, the bottom line of Alphabet? Perhaps, if these two products
where not born out of a proxy war to buttress the revenue of Google Search,
perhaps we all could have seen great things born out of their endeavors.

Instead, having served their purpose, the fiscal responsibility due to the
shareholders of Alphabet having been fulfilled, the Alphabet PR machine gently
asks that we look away, and look to their next amazing product.

------
kaeawc
I am sad about this. I've used the card since it came out years ago.
Reloading, paying, canceling, renewing, locking were all so super easy. Only
reason I didn't switch to Simple was because of the existence of Google Wallet
+ card, guess I'll be looking into that now.

~~~
ssully
I'll vouche for Simple. Their app and Goals feature are great, but the thing I
love is the real time purchase notifications. It's kind of amazing to me that
no bank (that I have used yet) have apps with this functionality. It's
incredibly comforting to get a notification everytime I buy something. It also
helped me identify falsified purchases the moment they happened, which enabled
me to put a hold on my card and file a report of the incident within minutes
(and all through the phone app!).

I really hate gushing about products and services on public forums, but Simple
deserves it.

~~~
dmd
I get real time notification from my Amex card and my Capital One visa.

~~~
xeromal
Those aren't bank accounts though.

------
dewiz
oh come on! it was working so well, I'm so tired of this company cancelling
services. If MS made EEE an entry in Wikipedia [1], we need to coin one for
Google...

1\. Experiment, Excite, Evaporate ?

2\. Google SDLC: PoC, Beta, Retire ?

"Google it" starts to sounds like "Kill it"

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend_and_extinguish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend_and_extinguish)

------
blakesterz
hmm, not even sure what that was. I know this sounds like sour grapes
complaining so feel free to read it in Verruca Salt's voice if you want...
This is why I am scared to try _anything_ new from Google. I know _why_ they
do it, I know how they do things, I totally get it, but it does _not_ make it
better. I know they like trying new things. I know they're not afraid to get
rid of things that aren't performing like they want. But as a little guy, just
part of the big group of users they monetize every day, I can't ever use
anything new from them because I'm just afraid it will be gone in a year or
two. I don't expect them to keep every damn thing running forever, I really
get that they can't, but they seem over eager to shut things down, even if
they seem to be used by no small number of people. e.g. Google Keep. Tried,
loved it, never used it again. I'm still afraid it'll die any day now.
/Verucca

~~~
Animats
Then there are the "lingering death" products, such as Google Voice. Google
bought that from Grand Central in 2009, and it's still basically Grand
Central. There's a running joke about Google Voice acquiring an API that's
been in a bug report for five years now.

I think there's a phone interface feature associated with Google Hangouts.
("Google Hangups?") But it probably requires that everyone you talk to have a
Google account. All these little closed-world communications systems are a
pain.

~~~
yohui
I think the Hangouts Dialer does use my Google Voice number. Google Voice
voicemails also show up in Hangouts now, instead of the Google Voice app.
Also, doesn't Project Fi use Google Voice numbers? And the recent Google Fiber
home phone service?

The dedicated Google Voice app has withered, but Google seems to be
integrating the service into their other projects.

------
mchahn
This makes it obvious how successful the Wallet Card was, I wonder how well
Google Pay is doing. I would not have even heard about Google pay if I wasn't
on HN, and I have used Android from the beginning.

~~~
fl0wenol
They're canceling it _because_ it was successful.

The issue is that by using virtual Master Cards they have to pay part of the
interchange fee to Citi (or was it Bancorp?). Not only that, but if you were
backing it by a credit card, then they ate the 2% fee that they get charged in
the backend when hitting your real credit card.

Plus the fact that they were essentially issuing you and everyone else short
term credit when you made a purchase and that every transaction was Card Not
Present no matter what (even if you swiped the "real" google wallet card,
which was fun to do) ... yeah.

It was never going to stick around unless you got charged for usage, at which
point it's not so attractive.

The pressure in the industry is to move to the secure-element/token based
system anyway, i.e. Samsung/Android/Apple pay.

If you want to do funky stuff in the backend to abstract your purchases into
one place then Simple or something like that is for you.

What I'm worried about is what's going to happen with the send-money feature
of Google Wallet, which was attractive for short-term keeping track of who
owes who what without Paypal fees.

I'm hoping they bring that back and somehow link it into Android Pay, even if
there's some kind of fee coming or going for when you actually "collect".
(Keeping it otherwise liquid and fee-free when you're just moving numbers
around between accounts inside the system).

 _crosses fingers_

~~~
yohui
Google Wallet will still be used to send money between Google users. In fact,
that appears to be its only function going forward.

Money will be taken directly from the sender's debit card or checking account,
and the recipient can deposit it in their checking account. The only features
going away are the physical Wallet card and the ability to add to your Wallet
balance.

According to /u/GraemeStanding, who appears to work on Android Pay (which is
basically the old NFC payment portion of Google Wallet, split off and
rebranded):
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/4crogp/just_got_an...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/4crogp/just_got_an_email_from_google_and_its_confirmed/d1kvuho)

~~~
fl0wenol
Unfortunately this is still a step back because the whole upside to Google
Wallet was that you could "carry" the Wallet balance and use it as no-fee
settlement between acquaintances, or turn around and pay for Google services
with small amounts not worth withdrawing.

I mean if you can do ACH (i.e debit cards) with both parties and avoid fees
then that's convenient in that you don't have to exchange checking account
numbers or something outrageous (just email addresses), but that still could
take an indeterminate amount of time to settle. Next day? A week?

But with the wallet balance you could hold transfers I got from other people
or put money in ahead of time from my bank and then when I need it, the other
party knows they got it on their phone.

------
talles
> We’re focused on making it easier than ever to send and receive money with
> Google Wallet. Keep an eye out for new features and a fresh design in the
> coming months.

Who's gonna "keep an eye out" for "new features and a fresh design" after they
discontinue the thing? What about keeping the existing service working for
this "coming months"?

------
onetimePete
Wait a second, you got to announce it first before you can it. Chronological
order has to prevail, else no rollback is possible.

Whatever it was they canned.

------
cmurf
A bit off topic but is anyone annoyed with how cards with RF are being
replaced with a chip card? I don't know why card issuers are doing that.
Mobile devices increasingly have NFC for contactless payment, so why would the
card issuers roll that back in favor of chip only?

~~~
botterworkshop
In an attempt to corner market or security, possibly both?

------
LaMarseillaise
I literally just ordered the card a few days ago. It has not even arrived yet
(estimated delivery was between March 29 and April 3). I was eagerly awaiting
the card, looking forward to using it for budgeting and mobile payments. Now I
will just have to figure out something else.

------
synunlimited
One of my favorite things about the Wallet Card was the design. Having a clean
front that always surprised people that haven't seen one before. I'd always
get comments on it and asked if I worked at Google haha

RIP YetAnotherGoogleService

~~~
ocdtrekkie
It was the first time I saw one like this, but not the last. Citi has a flavor
of card designed like this now, only thing on the front is the EMV chip and
the logo.

~~~
snuxoll
Discover has been doing this for a long time too.

------
cakes
This really is too bad, was convenient at some points for me. Any good
suggestions that are of the similar load-and-use-as-needed variety?

~~~
grahamburger
If you're using a Wallet card now you should get an email about this from
Google. They have two cards they suggest moving to, Simple and one from Amex.
Looks like they're both giving $20 to users who migrate from Google Wallet.

~~~
c3t0
AMEX requires 3 direct deposits of $500 or more.

Simple does not seem to have that condition.

------
amelius
I'm not sure if I liked data-harvesting combined with my finances anyway.

------
achalkley
I just got mine in the post the other week. Great news! /s

------
YesThatTom2
I never used the product because I assumed this was a work-around until they
could get credit card companies on board and such.

------
mugatuq
April fools! Oh wait...

------
wnevets
I use my wallet card all the time, its is kinda annoying.

------
peachepe
And just _yesterday_ I was trying to get one :)

------
ocdtrekkie
I got one when they came out. Then I found out I had to load it manually like
a debit card, and I never ever used it, even once. It's around my house
somewhere. I won't miss it.

------
exabrial
Sad to see this go, had a lot of potential!

------
dmd
I feel like at this point there should just be a form letter for Google
retiring services.

Dear users,

[ ]MAJOR [ ] MINOR

Google service which you

[ ] DEPENDED ON TO DO YOUR JOB [ ] BUILT MAJOR PARTS OF YOUR WORKFLOW ON [ ]
LIKED A LOT [ ] HAD BEEN MEANING TO TRY OUT, DAMMIT [ ] HAVE NEVER EVEN HEARD
OF

will be discontinued

[ ] LITERALLY TOMORROW [ ] IN SIX MONTHS, AND YOU CAN EXPORT YOUR DATA BUT
IT'S IN SOME COMBINATION JSON+XML FORMAT WHICH THE DEVELOPERS THINK IS TOTALLY
HIP BUT PROBABLY YOU SHOULD JUST WAIT FOR SOMEONE HIPPER THAN YOU TO WRITE A
LIBRARY TO PARSE IT [ ] AND AUTO-MIGRATED TO A SERVICE YOU REALLY DON'T WANT
TO USE

Thanks for your support. Please try out

NEW PRODUCT THAT WE ARE INTRODUCING TOMORROW AND SUNSETTING

[ ] WHO KNOWS HAHAHAHA

See you at
[http://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/](http://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/)
!

Love, Google.

