Google wires up for wireless payments

Google is planning to hand shopkeepers thousands of NFC-capable terminals in New York and San Francisco, to encourage proximity payments using their Nexus S handset. Bloomberg has been chatting to some of the merchants who've been offered the terminals, though it appears to suggest that Google is planning its own payment …

[JaitcH]

If Google is planning to hand shopkeepers thousands of NFC-capable terminals at no cost ...

merchants are likely to be very receptive because the banks charge a high, for small merchants, monthly fee for the credit card/debit terminals.

Pre-emptive strike to Google.

[Anonymous Coward]

Err, wrong!

My local pub has a Chip and PIN terminal, they only pay a fee if they take over a certain amount in payments. The landlady didn't tell me how much their minimum amount for charge is, but she did tell me that they've never paid. As I've personally seen over a grand go through it over the course of a month I suspect they're not being overcharged by their bank.

Being overcharged by the brewery tie, now that's another matter...

[Tempest]

Different countries different rules.

Here in Cambodia there's a monthly fee, VietNam and Canada too.

Different classes of users have different fees - travel agents get theirs free through the reservation systems.