Did my first Google Wallet transaction today

Forums › Android › Did my first Google Wallet transaction today - success!

lchiu7

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#109326 18-Sep-2012 09:19

I have had GW on my phone for a while (Galaxy Nexus) and got the $10 credit for signing up and added $20 more to keep a decent balance on it but never had a chance to try it out since there are not many merchants in Wellington who support it that I would actually shop at.

Anyway Google is now discontinuing the Google Prepaid card that is one of the funds for GW and the $10 credit will disappear on October 17. Plus if you don't use the credit by Sept 17 (US time) and you have to reset GW, then the credit will also disappear.

So there was strong motivation to use it.

Saw that Leuven in Wellington has a breakfast special of $7.50 and take GW (Mastercard Paypass) and so got up early, drove down with my son and had breakfast.

Went to pay and saw they had two type of EFTPOS devices - the usual swipe style and one with the Paypass reader. Of course I asked for that one. The cashier fired up the reader, entered the amount and I placed my phone on the reader. Nothing happened so she tried again and I fired up GW to see how I should use it. Turns out that while GW doesn't have to be running the phone does have to be unlocked. I thought I had done that but anyway, now the phone was unlocked, tried it again.

This time the transaction started, waiting for authorisation appeared on the terminal and my phone and eventually it completed, the entire transaction taking about 20s. I guess the authorisation had to take place on the Money Network in the US.

So it works, albeit not as fast as you would like but it certainly raised some surprise and interest with the Leuven staff.

Also the transaction rate seems pretty good. The meal was NZ$18.5 which showed up as US$15.28 which is an exchange rate of about 0.83.

As for the screen capture, the unsupported phone message is because the phone is rooted which I had to do to both get the phone back to the core Android build rather than the slightly customised build from Samsung HK so I could get the lastest Android releases and also so I could run Market Enabler to set my phone to be T-Mobile to enable GW.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/rooms/32019730 Mention GZ to get a 10% discount

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haakuturi

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#687575 18-Sep-2012 09:30

I was about to ask how you managed to get Google Wallet working on your phone, 'cause I'm running a stock Galaxy Nexus with updates coming from Google rather than Samsung, so technically I have got Google Wallet, but it doesn't show up. So can I just use Market Enabler and set it to T-Mobile, and Google Wallet will appear?

I love the idea of being able to pay for stuff with my phone :D

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MattR

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#687600 18-Sep-2012 10:42

Tried to install Google Wallet

"This app is incompatible with your 2degrees Samsung Galaxy Nexus."

Any ideas? I bought it from mobicity.

haakuturi

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#687611 18-Sep-2012 10:50

MattR: Tried to install Google Wallet

"This app is incompatible with your 2degrees Samsung Galaxy Nexus."

Any ideas? I bought it from mobicity.

As far as I know, Google Wallet isn't available in New Zealand. So you need something to convince your phone that you're actually in America.

ChevronX

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#687614 18-Sep-2012 10:50

Matt - might have something to do with your 2Degrees firmware, you might have to wait till they release an update supporting it or root and install custom ROM with support. Good to know about Google wallet, haven't played with it myself but cannot wait.

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lchiu7

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#687625 18-Sep-2012 11:20

There are two ways to install Google Wallet outside of the US and not with T-Mobile.

I think both require the phone to be rooted but there is no need for a custom ROM.

1. Run Market Enabler and pretend to be T-Mobile. Then sideload the apk which is easily found. Once you have done that Google Wallet updates appear in the Play Store. This is what I did

2. Root the phone and find the hacked apk that does not check for carrier. But it cannot be installed normally from what I have read. It has to be pushed to the phone using adb

Also you can add any credit card but I am not if that means non US ones. I haven't checked since I only used a US one to top up.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/rooms/32019730 Mention GZ to get a 10% discount

BigBadaboom

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#687722 18-Sep-2012 13:57

lchiu7: There are two ways to install Google Wallet outside of the US and not with T-Mobile.

I believe you should be able to install it if you have a T-Mobile SIM. I happen to have one so I might try it out and let you know. I didn't realise Wallet worked with standard PayPass terminals.

lchiu7

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#687743 18-Sep-2012 14:39

BigBadaboom:
lchiu7: There are two ways to install Google Wallet outside of the US and not with T-Mobile.

I believe you should be able to install it if you have a T-Mobile SIM. ?I happen to have one so?I might try it out and let you know. I didn't realise Wallet worked with standard PayPass terminals.

I also a TMO SIM that's still active, not that it matters so I must try that also.

I used an application called Mastercard PayPass locator to find places to use GW. I noticed that when I was in the US this year and used my OneSmart card which is also PayPass.

There are not many in Wellington but it looks like there a sushi place near me I can try out.

[EDIT]

Just had a thought. I just got my daughter's Nexus S back from repair. She is normally on TMO in the US but had to send the phone back to me for warranty repair.The phone is not rooted. So I might insert my TMO SIM card in and see if I can install GW on it.

[EDIT]

No I wasn't able to in that the app did not show in the Play Store.

But I was able to add a NZ credit card to GW - that's a new feature. I wonder when I use it here, given the service is US based, will there be a double exchange rate conversion going on?

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/rooms/32019730 Mention GZ to get a 10% discount

lchiu7

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#688753 20-Sep-2012 12:21

Just to add an update to this posting for those who are thinking about using GW.

Emboldened by my success I tried again, this time with a local sushi place in Wellington. The first time I tried I got an exceeded credit limit message! I then went into the wallet app and changed my default payment from what it was (I think it might have been my NZ CC) to the Google prepaid card. This time the transaction went through okay (approved on their EFTPOS device) but GW showed the transaction as having no value(!). A check of my remaining prepaid balance showed it was about $3 less than it should have been.

I called up the Money Network (free courtesy of Vonage) and queried it.

They were able to tell me the following.

1, The transaction had gone through and the amount was right.
2. The discrepency in balance was because they put a $3 charge on the account while a transaction is pending. It turns out that GW transactions on the Google's prepaid card (which was the only way initially to use GW) are actually handled through the credit card network. Once the transaction had been finalised, the $3 would be put back and that would take 3 days.

I checked last night and GW now showed the actual value of the sushi transaction but the balance was still wrong. A check this morning showed the correct balance so all is good, albeit a bit tedious.

As for the failure (credit limit exceeded) I suspect that might well be GW allowing you to add non US cards to it but when you try to use them, they fail. That's not so friendly. I am going to try again soon to check that theory out.

I know I am not in the US so not supposed to be able to use GW but I can't imagine the issues being any different if you were in the US. It's therefore clearer why it has had low takeup but the move to using any credit card might alleviate those issues. It would be cool if they allowed international CC's but then there are so few merchants around with the Paypass terminals.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/rooms/32019730 Mention GZ to get a 10% discount

stevenz

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#688776 20-Sep-2012 13:01

MoDaCo have a hacked "global" version of the Wallet APK available that you can sideload.

@KnightNZ

lchiu7

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#688786 20-Sep-2012 13:18

stevenz: MoDaCo have a hacked "global" version of the Wallet APK available that you can sideload.

Knew that. It bypasses the carrier check but had to be installed via adb. Just as easy to run Market Enabler and avoid that but both solutions require root.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/rooms/32019730 Mention GZ to get a 10% discount

freitasm

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#688791 20-Sep-2012 13:31

Does it require specific handset models or work with any NFC-enabled one? And which version of Android does it require?

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stevenz

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#688806 20-Sep-2012 13:43

Requires OS NFC support which is only present in ICS onwards. Supposedly works on any NFC enabled device though.

The whole system is a bit of a bodge for us until such time as they have an agreement with local banks, which could be some time off given the current level of international support (or lack thereof) of the Wallet app.

@KnightNZ

lchiu7

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#688894 20-Sep-2012 15:20

freitasm: Does it require specific handset models or work with any NFC-enabled one? And which version of Android does it require?

I am using JB but it should work with ICS. You might have to use the hacked apk though to register. And then the Google prepaid $10 gift is gone so you might need a US credit card to be able to actually buy anything. I plan to check later when I have a hankering for mussels or sushi to try with my NZ CC :-)

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/rooms/32019730 Mention GZ to get a 10% discount