Is paying with digital wallet apps really safe or do we risk losing money? Let’s find out how the most used wallet services work.
Are Apple Pay and Google Pay safely for payments?
How to pay with Apple Pay and Google Pay
To use Apple Pay we will not have to download anything on our iPhone since its features are already included in the operating system. If, on the other hand, we want to use Google Pay on an Android phone, we must necessarily download the dedicated app from the Google Play Store.
To add a card compatible with the two services, open the Google Pay app on our Android phone and press Add a payment method; on the iPhone, we open the Settings menu, press on Wallet and Apple Pay, and press Add card. In both cases, we will have to enter the card number, the expiry date, the name that appears on the card, and the CVV2 (the code on the back).
After adding the card, we will be asked to adequately protect our device, since it now also stores sensitive data. In order to pay with these two apps, biometric unlocking (with fingerprint or face) or a security PIN (to be entered in case the biometric unlocking is not effective) is required.
The instant we have to pay, simply unlock the phone screen, open the app we configured and bring the back of the phone close to the POS, so as to complete the transaction.
What we risk in case of theft or loss
As we saw in the previous chapter, it is not possible to pay with wallet apps if we have not previously unlocked the screen with a biometric unlocking method or by entering the PIN; this makes it impossible to pay by mistake with the phone locked and we cannot suffer any money theft when we leave the phone unattended somewhere as unlocking is always required.
On Apple Pay the security level is very high: to pay we will first have to bring the iPhone to the POS compatible with contactless and use Face ID or Touch ID to confirm the transaction. On Google Pay, payment is available when the screen is unlocked, but we still need to open the app to confirm the transaction.
If we, unfortunately, lose our phone or it is stolen, no one will be able to pay with the associated cards on Google Pay or Apple Pay, as they will have to pass biometric checks or know our security PIN.
How to block app wallets
Having found the theft or loss of the phone where we had configured the digital wallets, we can always delete the associated cards on the devices using the online versions of the services and delete the device, using the anti-theft systems integrated on Android and iPhone.
On the iPhone we can immediately delete all the cards associated with the iPhone by taking us to the iCloud site, logging in with the Apple account used on the device, pressing the Find iPhone icon, pressing Mark as lost or Lost mode, and finally selecting Activate or Enable.
To delete everything on the lost iPhone, open the lost device from Find iPhone, press Initialize this device and select Initialize this [device].
Conclusions
The Google Pay and Apple Pay apps make contactless payments a lot easier, as we no longer have to carry our credit cards around to make payments! The security systems adopted by the phones are very effective in preventing accidental payments or theft of money since we will always have to unlock the screen with biometric systems or at most enter a security PIN before proceeding with the actual payment.
Even if we lose our phone or get it stolen, we don’t have much to fear, as you still need to unlock your phone to pay; in this scenario, however, we advise you to immediately use the remote recovery and deletion tools integrated on modern smartphones to completely block the use of the phone or format it remotely.
