[Wear OS General] bernarbernuli:
How to use Google Pay with unsupported banks.

As of today, Google Pay has spread in most of Europe, USA, Canada, Brazil, Chile, Australia, New Zealand and some countries in Asia such as India and Japan, and in each of these countries there are banks that are compatible with Google Pay contactless payment and others that are not (here complete list of banks by country), for example, in Spain which is the country where I live, there are many banks that have already joined Google Pay. If you are a customer of one of the supported banks you can easily add your credit and debit cards to Google Pay and pay from your phone or watch without problems but unfortunately, there are 2 major banks (and several more minority ones) that currently do not support Google Pay payments, these are CaixaBank and Banco Santander.

What happens to cards issued by entities such as these that have not joined Google Pay? In principle, you might think that there is nothing to do but, fortunately, there is a solution.

Basically it is to use a debit card that does support payments with Google Pay, and that you can associate with your usual debit card. In other words, it consists of having the card act as a "bridge" between your bank and Google Pay. It is an interesting option, since it does not imply having to become a customer of another bank or accept their conditions if you become a customer (in some cases, having a minimum amount of money in your current accounts or having your salary paid directly into your bank account). In European countries there is a solution, which is not associated with traditional banks, supports Google Pay and serves perfectly as a bridge, it is the Curve card. If you check the list of supported banks by country you will see that it is compatible in almost all European countries, in fact this card operates in 31 European countries. If Curve is not integrated in your country, either inside or outside Europe, investigate the compatible cards in your country from this list in case there is an alternative such as N26, Revolut, Monzo, etc.

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In the case of the Curve Mastercard, it is a physical card that is sent to your home free of charge and is not associated with any bank account, but with one or more credit/debit cards that you own. Therefore, once received at home, you must activate the card in the mobile app and then upload the cards you want to associate with Curve. When you pay with the Curve card, the charge is made to the card you have chosen at any given time. Now if you want to make payments through Google Pay you just have to add it as any other since as I said before the Curve card is supported by Google Pay. Every time you use Google Pay to pay with the Curve card, the charge is made to the card you have associated. Here more info about the Curve card and here with an explanatory video.

Although I consider that the great advantage is that you can use the card with non-compatible banks, the Curve card also has other advantages:

You can choose which of your VISA or Mastercard you want to pay with, by using the Curve Mastercard, you no longer need to carry the other cards in your wallet.

You can withdraw money from any ATM without commission (up to 10 times a month).

If you are traveling, you can withdraw money from any international ATM without commission (up to £200 / 220€) and you can also pay in foreign currency without commission (up to £500 / 550€ per month).

If you lose it you can block the card instantly from the mobile app.

The card is free, you don't pay anything for registration or maintenance and they don't charge commissions for making payments with it.

Steps to link your card to the Curve card, and then add it to Google Pay.

Follow the steps to open a free account on curve here.

Now to add it to Google Pay, open Google Pay on the watch.

Tap "Add card" and the setup will continue on the phone.

Tap on the card already set up on the phone, or "Add a new card" if it had not yet been set up on the phone.

Click "Enter details manually" to enter your card number, CVC and validity date.

Enter your billing address and phone number, then press "Save".

Read and accept the "Issuer Terms and Conditions".

Finally, you will have to choose a verification system for the bank to verify your identity. By default the SMS option is checked, so make sure your number is correct and continue. When you receive the message, enter the code and that's it, you will have the card configured in the watch.

Note: When paying for a purchase, if Contactless payment asks you for a PIN, always enter the one you have with the bank card, not the unlock code of the watch.

How to use Google Pay in unsupported countries such as Iceland, Slovenia, Mexico, Israel or Turkey.

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Users in many countries are unable to use Google Pay because they do not yet have official support for Google Pay. Although there is a workaround for this, basically it is to bypass Google's verification of the country you are in based on the IP address which causes Google Pay app to be deleted in seconds if used in an unsupported country. Therefore, to avoid this you need an IP address of a supported country, for this you use a proxy or a VPN, so you can pay in any country where the merchant has Contactless payment. For a much more extensive info and considerations about the trick enter here, basically the steps to follow are as follows:

Download the app Permanent Proxy from this link and install it on the watch. The app is designed for Wear OS devices and allows anyone to use Google Pay in regions where it is normally blocked.

Go to Settings > system > About and tap "Build number" multiple times until you see a message that says "you are now a developer". Next go to Settings > developer options and enable "ADB debugging" and "Debug over bluetooth".

Run Permanent Proxy app, it will ask for permissions, accept "always allow".

Now create a personal proxy service that is reliable and avoid changing the IP address frequently, for example in Google Cloud.

Enter the IP address and port of the proxy you created, and enable it. Now download from the Play Store, Google Pay (if it doesn't do it automatically) and you're done.

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