Saying that the prepaid card it once built its Wallet around had become obsolete, Google has moved to kill that payment option, effective Oct. 17, according to an announcement emailed to users and also posted on a Google blog.
Google recently opened the Wallet to allow linking to many credit and debit cards and, citing that as the reason, Google indicated it no longer believed its prepaid card served a purpose.
The company added that, effective Sept. 17, users would no longer be able to add additional funds to their prepaid balance.
In its blog post, Google assured users that there will be multiple ways to reclaim unused balances in the event Oct. 17 arrives and a user still has money in his or her prepaid account.
Analysts indicated that they saw this step having little impact on either Google Wallet users or future adoption rates.
