Google Will Reportedly Let You Pay Bills In Gmail Later This Year

THE NEXT WEB: Pretty much everyone gets their bills by email nowadays, but what if you could pay right from your inbox too? Google is apparently working on that, according to a report by Recode. The tool is currently dubbed Pony Express. It’s likely that won’t end up being the final name, but we can hope.

The documents Recode viewed showed a setup asking the user for personal information – including name, address and Social Security – to provide to a third party which would verify his or her identity. Depending on the bill, the user may have to provide a credit card or account number too.

After a user is verified, he or she can receive and pay the bills through Gmail or the newer Inbox. You can pay with a debit/credit card or bank account, and your bills would all be organized into a designated folder.

Interestingly, it seems Google is working primarily working with the companies that print and mail out bills rather than the service providers themselves. It’s possible Google is working with both, but that wasn’t clear from the documents in the report.

Recode says we should be able to get aboard the Pony Express in Q4 of 2015.