If you’re on Verizon, use Android, and have a phone and bank account compatible with Android Pay, you should whip out your shopping list and phone and get to tapping. For a limited time, three uses of Android Pay will net you an extra 2GB of data for your wireless account, good through mid-June!
I use Android Pay all the time. We’re lucky, in that the grocery stores and drugstores we frequently use all take NFC payments, and so far it’s never failed me. True, one time the lady at the World’s Sketchiest Rite Aid* maintained all the way up to when the receipt printed that “we don’t do that thing with the phones”. Also, the people staffing the self-checkout at Shop Rite always give me the side-eye, probably because no one else really uses NFC there. However, I’ve never had it fail to work, and generally it leads to fun conversations with the cashiers about NFC, Android Pay, Apple Pay, and how it feels like the future when you can just tap your phone and magically pay.
Claiming your 2GB is ridiculously easy. Open Android Pay on your phone, and select the new Android Pay Rewards card that should be there for all Verizon customers. After that, just tap and pay like normal, and the card will keep track of your taps. You do need to manually claim the free data, but it’s quite simple; select redeem, and you’re asked to verify your phone number. Then you get a confirmation code via text message, and you’re all set. Even if you aren’t a big user of NFC, free data is free data. Swing by Walgreens for gum or mints a few times, and enjoy the extra data just in time to binge-watch “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”!
*I don’t actually know for sure if that location is officially the World’s Sketchiest Rite Aid, but it is definitely weird, and on more than one occasion the cashiers have claimed the manager simply didn’t give them any cash in their registers so they will only take credit cards throughout the store. Which is yet another good reason to use Android Pay, since it gives me an extra level of security when I am forced to shop there.