One of our eagle-eyed readers (thanks, Daniel!) has spotted a signup page for Google Wallet – on Google UK, no less. The signup page, located at www.google.co.uk/wallet/, promises that the next version of Google Wallet is “coming soon”, presumably with UK support. This signup page is nothing new – the US/International version of Google (google.com) has had the same notice with the same message for months. However, with Google Music, Google showed that they have the (fairly basic) capability to block sites based on country, and in my mind this would be a major oversight if people from a UK IP address could gain access to the site and the google.co.uk/wallet link was active.
I’ve signed up for an invite, and you can access the backend immediately to add payment details and the like. Unfortunately, the app is currently unavailable for download in the UK.
For those who need reminding, Google Wallet is a NFC payment solution that allows you to make small payments (to buy your morning coffee and paper, for example) by waving your phone over a contactless pad. It also redeems Google Offers automatically, and if you lose a device with your wallet details attached you can remotely disable your wallet to prevent unauthorised access to your money. For more information on Google Wallet, you can head over to their Google Wallet UK site here.
Update
It has been brought to my attention in the comments below that the signup page does, in fact, appear on other Google subdomains, removing plausibility to my ‘country-blocking’ theory – for example, Google.fr displays the same page as the US/UK version – in the English language. I apologise for getting your hopes up – I too wish that it was available officially in countries other than the US! Who knows, we might see an international version soon. Thanks for pointing this out, Andy, James and Alan.
Do you think they’re actually planning to launch it? It’s just they’ve got all the US devices on the pages so it could just be a placeholder because it’s the same on the Ireland site too! http://www.google.ie/wallet/get.html
The option to sign up has been available for well over 2 months – I found it when I started looking after buying my Xperia T – anyway I signed up ages ago and have not heard anything since as for payment details that is how it’s always been you obviously have neverbbrought an app from the play store.
It’s worth noting that you can put pretty much any domain after Google in the URL and get the same option to sign up. E.g. google.fr or google.ru. So I wouldn’t necessarily be certain that it’s coming anytime soon.
Thank you, everybody – I have updated the main post. Sorry for getting everyone’s hopes up – I am probably as disappointed as you are!
Don’t know if this makes any difference but the signup asks for a post code as opposed to zip code so maybe this means it is on it’s way to the uk?
I’ve been using google wallet for 2 years in the uk, not really news
This is about Google Wallet’s in store NFC function, currently only available in the US… So yeah, bit awkward for you?
Well none of this really matters seeing as you can’t actually download the app as it displays “this application is not available in your country” on my n4