Google brings Wallet payments to Gmail

Gmail users in the United States will be able to use their accounts to send payments through Google's Wallet service, the company announced this morning.

Users need to be aged eighteen and over and will pay no fees for payments made via Google Wallet. For payments through Wallet-connected credit cards a fee of 2.9 percent applies. Wallet currently has a daily limit of US$1,000.

For now, Gmaill payments can only be made if the webmail service is running in a browser on personal computers, Google said, and not on mobile devices.

A payment protection scheme is included with Wallet that reimburses users against any fraud.

Google Wallet was originally devised by Google as a mobile payments service for Android devices with near field communications (NFC) capability.

It ties in with MasterCard and VIsa credit cards issued by several US banks and Google is currently not charging merchants any fees for accepting payments through Wallet.

The payments service is currently limited to American retailers only, but can be used with Google properties such as the Play app and music store.

Google has not said if it intends to bring Wallet to other countries.

Google promotional video for its Gmail payments through Wallet