Commentary: Mobile Payment – Not Ready for Prime Time?
I don’t make mobile payments yet. I don’t drink coffee, so I do not frequent Starbucks. However, I have been attempting to get up to speed on the state of the market. As I have a phone running Android, v5.1.1, that’s the best place for me to start, as that’s where my familiarity lies.
I have long used Google Wallet as a place to store my loyalty cards, but have never entered a credit card. I’m not sure why this is, as I was buying on the Internet in 1995 without encrypting my credit card. I was familiar with how the Internet works and knew that the risk of someone getting the packets that carried my credit card info was slim.
But I was still hesitant to add my credit card to my phone, even though security has improved significantly since the mid-90s. Maybe it’s because I have just crossed 50, but I still work in technology and mobile payment fascinates me, so I’m not sure why I haven’t ventured there yet. Maybe it has something to do with all the retail security breaches in 2014.
That being said, recently it seems Google decided to force my hand when they updated Google Wallet with Android Pay in September. One day I awoke to find that my familiar Google Wallet icon had disappeared and been replaced by Android Pay. All my loyalty cards that were stored in Google Wallet were moved to Android Pay, but I was initially not able to access them without entering a credit card.
The issue has since been resolved, and now I can open Android Pay and see my loyalty cards, rather than be required to enter a credit or debit card. I still have the option of adding a credit or debit card, but am resisting on principle.
So for me, the future of mobile payments is still very much in the future. Although my problem was resolved, it was still a terrible customer experience and one that suggests to me that ubiquitous mobile payments are still a ways off.