Google Offers Its Own Prepaid Debit Card

The Google Wallet Card can be used at all locations where MasterCard is accepted, and it doesn't come with any fees. It doesn't even charge you to withdraw cash at the ATM (though some ATMs will charge you a separate fee).

• Google Wallet, which has been around since 2011, is a virtual wallet that is funded by transfers from other Google Wallet users or money transferred from other bank and credit card accounts.

In an interesting twist, Google has introduced a debit card, it announced on Wednesday.

Google has been trying to gain traction in the mobile payments business with Google Wallet, a smartphone app. You link a bank account or credit card to it and it transfers money into the Google Wallet. Then you can pay for stuff by waving your phone in front of a device that reads the Wallet, at places that accept payment that way.

But what if you want to pay for something at a place that doesn't accept Google Wallet?

What if you want to use an ATM?

So Google bucked up and created an old-fashioned way to deal with this, a debit card.

It's free for Google Wallet users, although it's only available in the U.S. It's accepted at all the places that accept MasterCard.

Another bonus: this debit card charges no annual or monthly fees.

It sort of defeats the purpose of using your smartphone as a wallet but it also makes sense that Google would do this. It needs to take baby steps to encourage people to move away from their usual payment methods in favor of a smartphone app.