Google Wallet Eliminates Fees on Debit Card Transactions

by Gary Leff

A couple of weeks ago Google Wallet eliminated fees on debit card transactions. They now allow you to send money to other people, funded by debit card, and won’t charge you a fee to pull the money off your debit card.

After all, the Durbin Amendment drove down the cost of debit card transactions. (Which is also why banks have mostly gotten out of the game of rewarding those transactions, and have imposed more burdensome requirements for waiving account fees generally since having a checking account no longer correlates with making debit transactions that are profitable for banks).

Here’s what I see when going to make a payment:

Adam P. asked me about the usefulness of this yesterday. And since he was wondering, I thought others might be as well (or would be soon).

Google clarifies that while debit cards are free that only applies to some debit cards. Here’s the fee structure:

Unfortunately none of the gift cards that I’ve wanted to turn into cash recognized as fee-free debit cards (even those that are PIN-eligible).

And my Suntrust Delta debit card was treated as a credit card meaning it would incur a fee.

    So far it looks like Paypal Business Debit Card, T-Mobile, TD Go, and USBuxx all code as though they’re credit cards and thus appear as though they will incur a transaction fee.

Please do let me know if you find a card that works, incurring no fee, that’s useful!

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  9. What about Bluebird, Serve, or Chime? They dont earn rewards but it might help to remove funds that you have loaded onto them.

  13. Some of the Visa cards I purchased from Cracker Barrel worked…look for the 7/21 expiration dates!

  14. Follow.

    I’ve tried all of the various gift card flavors, and none work.

    Perhaps some of the GD reloadables?

  17. UFB Direct works. That debit card earns 1 American miles for every $2 spent. Google Wallet will show no fee when sending money with that card. Boom.

  19. Is there a PayPal personal debit that might work? Or are they all technically business debits?

  26. I love the comments on threads like this. Two percent of readers know how to “work it” and are horrified that Gary is discussing it. 98% want to know the trick.

    You can’t make 100% of readers happy.

Comments are closed.