Smartphones are taking over from your wallet in more ways than one and with the launch of Android Pay this week, we're set to see even more people pressing their phones against payment terminals. But what is Android Pay, and what does it offer?
What is Android Pay?
Essentially, Android Pay is an app you install to your smartphone which acts like a virtual wallet! It stores your debit and credit card information, which it can use to make transactions either in stores or online – but only when you tell it to.
If your smartphone supports Near Field Communication (NFC), you can make purchases simply by unlocking your phone and holding it against a tap-and-pay terminal. Buying things has recently become a lot easier - but is this a good thing?
How Secure is Android Pay?
Security depends on the phone you're using – and the security you've set up on it already. If you unlock your phone using a four-digit PIN, you're less secure than if you were using a longer PIN, password or even your fingerprint!
In some ways, though, Android Pay is more secure than using your regular bank cards – as it uses something called tokenization to authorise you as the account holder. Usually, your account number would be used for this authorisation process, so switching to a digital token instead means that it's even harder for someone to glean your card details.
In the UK, there's currently a £30 limit on all contactless payment transactions, which covers contactless bank cards as well as smartphone payment systems like Android Pay and Apple Pay. This means that in the unlikely event of someone stealing your phone, knowing your security codes and finding somewhere to make a purchase, the most they can remove from your account is £30 in a single transaction – still a pain, but unlikely to completely ruin your life.
What are the alternatives?
So far, a few companies have created their own contactless payment systems. Apple Pay was released in the UK in July 2015 and saw immediate adoption from a large number of iPhone users. Samsung Pay is also due to arrive in the UK sometime during 2016.
Apple Pay was certainly the first of its kind to market, and uses the same NFC technology which Android Pay relies on in order to work. It's highly secure, and also works with the Apple Watch – so you don't even need to remove your phone from your pocket to pay for something!
The key difference with Samsung Pay is that it won't require NFC, opening it up to work on a much wider range of smartphones than those supporting Android Pay. The drawback is that Samsung Pay will only work on a handful of five high-end Samsung devices for the time being – but we expect to see a few more handsets making that list in the near future.
WHEN and how WILL I GET ANDROID PAY?
If your handset meets the minimum requirements (it has to be running Android v4.4 or higher, and be equipped with an NFC chip) then you can download Android Pay from the Google Play Store.
Once you install the app, you just need to register a credit or debit card on the service and you're good to go. If you've already added a card to your Google Wallet (in order to make purchases from the Play Store) then you will be asked whether you'd like to add it directly to Android Pay. To add a different card, you can capture the details from it using the camera on your smartphone.
If you don't already have a lock screen on your handset, you'll be asked to set one - after all, your phone is now linked to your payment card, so you'll want to make sure you're the only person that can use it to buy things!
Finally your card issuer will verify that you are the authorised user. Each issuer will have their own way of doing this, but if you already use their mobile banking app, it will probably use the same method. Once verified, you're ready to spend, spend, spend with your phone - at least up to the £30 limit!
Are you already using contactless payment? Does it save you time and effort, or are you sticking with your trusty bank card? Let us know in the comments!