Google Pay website requiring 2FA from December onwards

Abner Li | Nov 9 2022 - 1:35 pm PT

Enabling two-factor authentication for the vast majority of your online accounts is the bare minimum in this day and age. Google Pay will soon require 2FA (2SV) to “view any payment info.”

Pay.google.com lets you see recent purchase Activity on YouTube, Google Play Movies (which has yet to be renamed to Google TV), “Google Play Apps” (including IAPs), Google Store, and Play Books. As a reminder, “Google Pay” today primarily refers to transaction methods like tap-to-pay or online, while Google Wallet on Android is a container for credit and transit cards.

There’s also a Subscriptions & services tab for things like Google One, Fitbit Premium, and Nest Aware, as well from third-party apps that use Google Play Billing and the ability to see those that you have Canceled.

Other aspects of this page include Payment methods to see saved credit/debit cards, Google Play balance, and Google Store credit. Addresses and Settings, which includes privacy settings, round out the page.

Visiting pay.google.com today reveals a yellow banner: “Beginning December 9, we’re increasing account security by requiring 2-Step Verification to view any payment info. To ensure continued access to your payment info, set up 2-Step Verification if you haven’t already.” This 2FA prompt appears for all Google Pay visitors, even if you have your account secured.

We’ve reached out to Google for more details, but pay.google.com looks like it will require your Account to verify login attempts before being able to see important data. This presumably refers to the Payment methods tab and possibly settings.

Over the past few years, Google has been auto-enabling 2FA or 2-Step Verification (in its parlance) for more users. The Google Prompt where you tap yes on your phone after entering your username and password is the easiest form of security. Others involve plugging in a USB security key to the device you’re signing into.