By 
Hidden inside the APK of a recent Google Wallet update, it seems Google is planning to kill off that physical Google Wallet card nobody was really using. Launching a little over 2 years ago, the physical Google Wallet card was a way for Google Wallet users to use their balance to pay for things when tap-to-pay wasn’t available.
With Google now making a big push for Android Pay as their go-to mobile payments service, it appears whatever data Google they were collecting from the few Wallet users still using the physical card is no longer cost effective. Thus, starting June 30th, the card will no longer work. Keep in mind this won’t effect Google Wallet itself, this only refers to the physical card and nothing else.
Here’s how multiple strings of code found inside the update (version 14.0-R256-v5) reads:
“As of June 30, Google Wallet will no longer support the Wallet Card. You’ll still be able to use Google Wallet to send and receive money and we’re working to make those features better than ever. If you have money in your Wallet Balance, you can keep it in Wallet or cash out anytime.
“You can keep using it until June 30, but you’ll only be able to add money to your Wallet Balance through May 1. If you have money in your balance already, you can keep it there or cash out anytime.”
Before it launched, it was rumored/assumed that the physical Google Wallet Card would work much like PayPal’s debit card, pulling money from your Wallet balance before switching over to whatever credit card you had on file. Unfortunately, that sort of functionality was never added (although some Googlers claimed they had a special Wallet Card that worked that way) which sort of rendered the card useless to us. Farewell, Wallet Card. We hardly knew ya.
Comments