You can now add your Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover credit and debit cards to Google Wallet by navigating to the Payment cards section in the app and entering your card details.

Add credit and debit cards

When you add credit or debit cards to the Google Wallet mobile app, you will be issued a virtual prepaid Mastercard card by The Bancorp Bank, Google Wallet’s partnering bank. This card is referred to as the “Google Wallet Virtual Card” in the Terms of Service. When you activate your credit or debit cards in Google Wallet, they are stored in your Google Wallet account, which is in turn linked to your virtual prepaid MasterCard card. When you make an in-store purchase, Google Wallet facilitates payment to the merchant for your in-store purchase using the virtual prepaid MasterCard card, then charges the purchase to your selected debit or credit card.

For these transactions, the merchant will not receive your credit or debit card credentials. Rather, Google Wallet will present the virtual prepaid MasterCard card to the merchant. Transactions made using the Wallet app will appear on your bank statement as GOOGNFC*merchant name.

If prompted by the cashier, say that you’re “paying with credit”. You can find the last four digits of your virtual prepaid MasterCard card account in the card details page of one of your cards.

Learn more about how purchasing using the Wallet app works with credit card spending rewards.

Please review the Google Wallet Terms of Service for more information.

$1.00 Authorizations

When you add a credit or debit card to Google Wallet (via the app or online), you'll see a pending authorization request for $1.00 from Google. This is just an authorization and not an actual charge. The authorization will be removed by your card-issuing bank usually within a few weeks.

Feel free contact us if you have a question about the authorization or a purchase using Google Wallet.