Google makes it easier to send money through Gmail

Think about how to send money electronically and it’s probably PayPal that springs to mind first. But if Google gets its way, Google Wallet is about to become much more popular. For anyone in the US, Google Wallet is now integrated into Gmail meaning that it is possible to send money as easily as sending an email.

Sending money works in much the same way as attaching a file to a message -- you can attach payment to an email just as you would an image or other file. You may not see it just yet -- Google plans to roll the feature out over the next few months -- but once activated you’ll see a $ button at the bottom of the Compose window. It’s clear that Google is making electronic payments as simple as possible to help the company take a bigger share of the electronic payment pie.

If you have money in your Google Wallet, sending money is free of charge as is the case when making transfers directly from your bank account. The payment system can also be used to make debit and credit card payments using cards you have associated with your account, but these will incur a 2.9 percent fee per transaction. As you would expect, receiving money is free.

Should you start to get impatient with waiting for the feature to be enabled in your account, check with people you know to see if they already have access to it. As soon as someone else sends you money, email based payments will be enabled in your own Gmail account as well.