What if you could pay your bills directly from your email account? According to a document Re/code viewed, Google is working on that functionality and may call the service Pony Express.
Screenshots show the steps required to sign up for the service. Gmail users would provide their name, address, Social Security number, and other details such as credit card number or telephone service account number to a third party service – indicated in the screenshots as IdentiCo. The documents indicate that Google and third-party vendors responsible for printing and mailing out bills on the behalf of insurance companies, utilities, and the likes are partnering together on the service.
While e-billing is not new, the ability to respond and pay directly from your Gmail or Inbox app on your device is a major step forward. With Pony Express – if that’s what Google continues to call it when it launches – Google would organize your bills into their own folder and allow you to pay them directly with a linked debit card or bank account. The service also appears to let you split a bill with another Gmail user, and even pull information for contacting customer service for the company you are paying.
The documents indicate that the service will launch in the fourth quarter, based on requirement of a Social Security number the service will presumably be U.S. only – at least to begin with.
What do you think about this potential new service? Would you pay your bills through Gmail if you could? Let us know in the comments below, or on Google+, Twitter, or Facebook.
[button link=”http://recode.net/2015/03/24/google-working-on-project-to-let-you-receive-and-pay-bills-directly-inside-gmail/” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Re/code[/button]Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
