The Race to be the Middle Man$

While the popularity of tap-to-pay payments are increasing with Apple Pay and Google Wallet, there is another hot competition. Companies are competing to be service that allows users to send and receive from people. You can always write a check or transfer money to them if you know their routing and account information. But with technology, it has already become much simpler. Google Wallet allows you to send/request/receive money from others; you can even send money through GMail.

Other services have come into the market like Popmoney, Venmo, Paypal, Chase QuickPay, and now Snapchat has joined Square to offer the sending money feature in the Snapchat application. All of them have basic send/receive money features. Some have fees while others do not.

For me, Google Wallet will be my preferred choice. While there are fees sending money using debit and credit card, it's free using directly from your bank account.

I don't have to have a separate service to send money. It's nice to have my mobile payments all in one central location. I can even request money in a seemingly less personal method with Google Wallet. And with Google Wallet, I don't have to carry any gift cards or loyalty cards (which every company seems to have).

The war to be the middle man in all these transactions is on. Google is even offering $5 for each referral on their service. As an avid Google Wallet user, I hope the service continues to gain in popularity and continues to improve and grow. (Hopefully the Marriott Rewards updates properly in the near future)