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Google Pay causes problems: Suddenly, mobile phone payments are no longer possible

Last updated on March 9, 2021

Users of Google's payment service are unexpectedly faced with embarrassing problems: Sometimes it is not possible to pay with Google Pay at card terminals. Google phones like the Pixel 5 are particularly affected, but NFC payments suddenly go on strike with other smartphones as well. What's going on there?

Google Pay refuses to serve: payments cannot be made

At the moment, Google Pay cannot be relied on, as many users report. According to them, Google's payment service would not be able to do its main task. Google Pay refuses NFC payments at card terminals and only issues a generic error message. The terminals themselves recognize the smartphones, but are simply rejected by Google Pay. It shouldn't be due to the individual stored cards, as one affected user reports in Google's help forum.

It is currently completely unclear exactly where the problem with Google Pay lies. Google itself has not yet commented on the issue. What is certain, however, is that the difficulties are not isolated cases and that not just a single smartphone model is affected. There are complaints from owners of Google phones like the new Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a 5G, but also from OnePlus smartphones like the OnePlus 8 Pro. Accordingly, a specific hardware fault in a single cell phone is not assumed.

According to users, common solutions should not lead to success. For example, there is no point in holding the cell phone in a different position over the card terminal. Using a different saved card doesn't help either, just like removing it from Google Pay and adding it again. Deleting and reinstalling the app yourself cannot convince Google Pay to carry out NFC transactions.

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Paying in stores with Google Pay: this is how it should work:

Google Pay not working: mallet as an interim solution?

At least one user reports that resetting the smartphone to the factory settings resulted in Google Pay working again for him. For others, however, that didn't help either. Some suspect it could be something to do with a restored Google Account or a bug on Android 11.

Source: giga.de