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Google Wallet, which only worked well with Citi MasterCards when it launched last year, is getting more inclusive.
On Wednesday, Google announced the latest version of its NFC-enabled mobile payment platform would support all credit and debit cards from Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover.
To accomplish this flexibility, Google changed the way it stores payment information. Instead of storing the data on the device, it will now store it on Google servers.
"This new approach speeds up the integration process for banks so they can add their cards to the Wallet app in just a few weeks," Robin Dua, head of product management for Google Wallet, wrote in a blog post.
While the update makes Google Wallet more relevant to people with diverse financial services vendors, it does not help clear the system's most limiting hurdle--which is that Google Wallet only works with phones that have NFC capabilities.
That's still a short list. So far, it's available on five phones and the Nexus 7 Tablet.
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