By now you’ve seen other shoppers at the store who check out by simply passing their phones near the merchant’s screen, confirming their purchase with a tap, and then picking up their goods and exiting. No more searching for money or credit cards in their wallets, purses, and pockets, handing it to an employee, swiping, or getting grimy cash back.
The obvious advantages of digital wallets or mobile wallets—seamless purchasing, virtual ticket storage, decluttering, and lightening the load of a physical wallet—are easy to understand. But what other reasons are behind the rapid takeoff of digital wallet adoption and is it right for you?
#1 Earn More Bonus Awards
Some credit cards offer better or special incentives when you upload them to your digital wallet. Look online at the offers to see which credit cards seem best for you. On top of those offers, Samsung Pay and Google Pay then provide ways to earn additional rewards when shopping with select vendors through their apps. This gives you opportunities to stack rewards from the credit card issuers and your digital wallet, increasing savings.
#2 Send and Receive Money in Seconds
Think of times you wanted to pay back a friend or pick up the check. With a digital wallet, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay let you send and receive money with a bank account, debit card or the balance in the app account. Apple Pay allows you to add Apple Cash from a debit card or other source as well.
#3 Easily Split the Bill
When dining with friends or family, you can easily pay the check, earn those credit card rewards, and have everyone reimburse you with Venmo or Google Pay. Not having cash on hand is never an issue. Venmo is designed to request payment from several contacts in the app, so you can even specify the amounts. Google Pay’s convenient feature lets you track the status of payments. Just know the bill payment is your responsibility.
#4 Send International Money Transfers
Looking for an easy way to send money to distant friends and family? Western Union helps customers in many countries send and receive money in their personal digital wallets. Whether you’re sending something extra for holidays and birthdays or helping to pay your family’s utility bill, you can send the transfer directly into their digital wallet where this option is available. Family and friends conveniently receive your transfers in their local currency. Check out Western Union’s website to see if the country you are sending money to accepts a digital wallet transfer, or download the app to send your transfer today.
#5 Start Using Credit Cards as Soon as They’re Approved
When you apply for a credit card and get approval, some credit card issuers make you wait for the physical card—and some don’t! For example, American Express provides an instant credit card number which can be added to Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Google Pay and others. Chase has a similar program for eligible cards under its “Spend Instantly” feature. Other credit cards may not ever reside in your physical wallet, such as Deserve’s Digital First Card which is issued only as a digital card. It can be used immediately in Apple Pay and Google Pay upon approval. Apple Card, too, lives in the Wallet app of your iPhone. Sign up can take less than a minute in Apple Pay and then you’re good to go.
#6 Track Expenses and See Where Your Money is Going
Google Pay added an “Insights” feature that lets users link their bank accounts to their Google Pay app for easy personal budgeting. This gives an overview of your finances showing how much you’re spending and how much money you have. It provides charts and graphs to visually communicate your financial habits, and helps users digitize and organize receipts.
#7 Get Better Fraud Protection
By their very nature, digital wallets require identity verification with your fingerprint, face ID, PIN, or other means before you can make a purchase. This is increased security beyond that of a physical wallet where someone could potentially steal your credit or debit card information and have a massive shopping spree. Purchases go through a layer of tokenization so your credit card information is replaced by randomly generated numbers or letters that have no value to hackers. Digital wallets offer strong protection against fraudulent purchases, but if you do not password protect your phone you are putting your digital wallet and any other sensitive app accounts at risk.
So Many Reasons to Consider a Digital Wallet
Digital wallet advantages are many: They can be used online as well as in-store; are fast, secure, convenient; and a financially savvy way to purchase goods and services across the board. Whether referring to this evolving way of purchasing as touch-free, digital, mobile pay, contactless, frictionless, or simply convenient, consumers and merchants are jumping on this new technology to help consumers better manage finances, speed transactions, increase security, and organize electronic documents like IDs, memberships, event and transportation tickets, gift coupons, and store cards.
