What is Google Checkout

Google Checkout is an online payment processing service provided by Google aimed at simplifying the process of paying for online purchases. Users store their credit or debit card and shipping information in their Google Account, so that they can purchase at participating stores at the click of a button. Google Checkout also offers fraud protection, as well a unified page for tracking purchases and their status.

Google Checkout was free for merchants until February 1, 2008^[1]. Since that date Google charges merchants 2.0% plus $0.20 per transaction (1.5% + £0.15 for UK merchants)^[2]. Also since this date, merchants who advertise with an AdWords account will not be charged fees on monthly transactions totaling less than ten times their monthly AdWords expenditure.

Prior to launch there had been early speculation that Google was building a product to compete with PayPal. However, the scope of Google Checkout is focused on enabling one-time payments to be made from a purchaser to a merchant. Unlike PayPal, Google Checkout does not permit the use of stored funds, nor allows payments from person to person.

eBay (which owns PayPal) caused some controversy when it added Google Checkout to its banned payment methods list, thus preventing eBay users from using Google Checkout.^[3]

Google Checkout service was first made available in the United States on June 28, 2006. The service later became available in the UK on April 13, 2007.^[4]

Source: Wikipedia