What is a digital wallet? Apple Pay, Google Pay and app balances explained
By SendPay Business · · 2 min read
A digital wallet lets someone pay with their phone, watch or computer instead of a physical card or cash. The term covers two different things: phone wallets that store your cards, and money apps that hold a balance of their own.
Type 1: phone wallets
Apple Pay and Google Pay store a digital version of your card. When you pay, the shop gets a one-off code, a token, instead of your real card number, and you approve with your face, fingerprint or phone PIN. It's widely seen as safer than using the plastic card.
Type 2: balance wallets
Some wallets hold money themselves. PayPal, mobile money services and many money apps let people keep a balance, send it to others and spend it, often with a card linked to that balance.
Why businesses care
- Faster checkout online and in person.
- Fewer failed payments from mistyped card details.
- A more secure payment, which can mean fewer fraud disputes.
Offering your own
A money app with balances and its own cards is a wallet in its own right, and its cards can often be added to phone wallets too. SendPay platforms, powered by licensed partners, include balances, virtual and physical cards and payment links.
Build it
Create your own financial platform.
Pick a template, name it, brand it, preview every page before you pay. Your brand, your users, your fees.
Build my platform →Questions people ask
Who owes what after a group meal?
Split the bill fairly with the free calculator.
Split the bill calculator →What is a virtual card?
A card that lives in an app, ready to add to a phone wallet.
What is a virtual card? →What is mobile money?
A phone-number wallet like M-Pesa, used widely in Africa and Asia.
What is mobile money? →How do I start a wallet app?
The crypto wallet guide covers balances, rules and launch steps.
Start a crypto wallet app →Read next
This guide is general information, not legal or financial advice. SendPay Business is a technology company, not a bank, and does not take deposits; regulated services on the platforms are provided by licensed partners. PayPal, Patreon and Substack are named as reference points only and are not affiliated with SendPay Business.