Google Pay is making holiday shopping more convenient and secure by expanding its Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options and enhancing its virtual card feature. The company has partnered with popular BNPL providers Afterpay and Klarna to offer users more flexible payment options at checkout. With the new BNPL integration, US shoppers using Google Pay can choose to split their purchases into interest-free installments starting at $35.
This feature is handy during the holiday season when spending tends to increase. Users can manage their BNPL purchases, track deliveries, handle returns, and make repayments directly using the Afterpay or Klarna app. Drew Olson, Senior Director of Google Pay, said, “By teaming up with pay-over-time providers, we are able to give Google Pay users more payment options when checking out, while providing merchants with another tool to drive growth.
In addition to the BNPL expansion, Google Pay is also improving its virtual card numbers feature.
This privacy-focused feature allows users to generate virtual card numbers for their saved debit and credit cards, which can be shared with merchants for online or in-app purchases. The virtual numbers keep the actual card information secure, reducing the risk of fraud.
Expanding payment options for shoppers
The virtual cards feature currently supports American Express, Capital One, and Citi cards. Starting this month, Google Pay will also support Discover cards, enabling more users to protect their card information. These updates to Google Pay are part of the company’s efforts to enhance the shopping experience and stay competitive in the digital payment space.
As more people look for convenient and secure ways to manage their spending, services like BNPL and virtual cards are becoming increasingly popular. However, some concerns remain regarding Google’s data collection practices. Critics argue that the company’s policies may go too far for a financial platform, despite Google’s emphasis on transparency.
A recent lawsuit highlighted discomfort with these changes, pushing the company to defend its practices against claims of privacy violations. Despite these challenges, Google continues to roll out features to improve usability and security, such as supporting biometric authentication for autofill and introducing tools to provide helpful product insights for in-store shopping. As the holiday season approaches, these enhancements to Google Pay are set to make shopping more manageable and secure for users.
