Google To Start Offering Checking Accounts – In Partnership With Citi & BBVA, BMO & More (Google Pay Plex)

Update 8/6/20: 9 to 5 google is now reporting that there will be a total of 8 banking partners including BBVA, BMO Harris and the previously announced Citi & Standford.

Update 4/17/20: TechCrunch has obtained images of what the physical and virtual debit cards will look like. Interestingly the card will feature both the Google name and the Citi/standford branding.

Original post: According to the WSJ Google will begin to offer checking accounts to consumers, the project’s codename is ‘Cache’ and is expected to launch sometime in 2020. Google is partnering with Citigroup and Stanford credit union to offer the account. In fact the accounts will have the Citi/Stanford branding rather than the Google branding, given that they will also be responsible for the ‘financial plumbing’ and compliance it’s unclear what Google will actually bring to the table.

View Comments (75)

  • It's OK, Google will forget about this after a year. That's been their usual new product roadmap. You'll be stranded on the side of the road wondering what happened.

    • As long as they launch with a fat marketing budget in the form of signup bonuses, high APY, big $ referrals, then I’m ok if this smolders on the side of the road.

    • That's not necessarily a bad thing though. If you're gonna fail at something, fail quickly and move on to the next thing.

  • So whose going to be on Google Fi with a Google Pixel, with a Google Wallet, Linked to a Google Citi Bank account, using a Gmail account using Google Maps to travel? All your data in one place, nice and convenient.

  • I'm banned from Citi for high level of manufactured spending...fair to assume I'll be banned from these Google checking accounts also?

  • I'm assuming the customer service will be just as bad as with Google Fi. Avoid at all costs

    • you should care as this might present a great opportunity to short a company that recklessly diversifies into unfamiliar fields after decades of failures doing the same, at a time when their main business is facing fierce competition in a shrinking (ad) market

      you could make enough in one shot to never waste another second of your life thinking about "interest rate on checking account" any more ;)

  • Don't bother. Google will abandon this 18 months down the line, just like 99% of every other thing they've tried. Still have my old Google debit card they killed off 5 years ago.

  • The terms and conditions will be astronomical. I recently got an application for short-term temp jobs and it was 17 pages long.