I have been using Google Wallet since it has become available. It works in A LOT more places than you probably think. So does Apple pay for that matter.
I install the credit card pin pads you use at cash registers in retail stores. I'm talking about the pin pads that you the customer swipe your own card and punch in your pin yourself. This is called "integrated credit", meaning that the credit card transactions are integrated within the point of sale system. The pos terminal tells the pin pad what amount to charge and exchanges information to send out to the credit card processors. "Non integrated" credit card terminals are the kind where the cashier takes your card and swipes it through some reader. These machines don't talk to the point of sale system.
You can say I know a lot about the subject matter.
I'd like to point out a few things about this topic for people that are unfamiliar with this stuff. Functionally there is no difference between the way that Google Wallet works and Apple Pay works. At least in terms of the way the transaction is processed they work exactly the same way. Apple isn't doing anythe special here folks, sorry to burst the bubble. NFC is a communication method. The magnetic stripe on a credit card is a communication method as well. The numbers you send to the pin pad with a magnetic stripe on a plastic card are the exact same numbers you send to the pin pad when you're running a NFC payment. There's no difference in terms of the data that is seen by the pin pad. The pin pad is just the delivery man. It takes whatever communication you give it, and it passes it on to the POS system, then to the bank. To put it in another way, for all intents and purposes, the pin pad doesn't really know whether or not you're swiping a card or using the mag reader. It doesn't care.
Functionally there is no difference between Apple Pay and Google Wallet. Anywhere one of them works the other one will work. There's no way to turn off Apple Pay and leave Google Wallet active. It just doesn't work that way. NFC is either on or off.
With that said, a whole lot more pin pads work with Apple Pay and Google Wallet than you think. I have spoken with the manufacturers of the major credit card pin pad systems and I have confirmed exactly which pin pad models work with Apple Pay and Google Wallet. I've also tested every single one of these models in person. If you would like to know what pin pads you can use your phone to pay with, do a google search of these models and look at the pictures. If you're too lazy for that, just look for the dongle attachment on the top of most pin pads. If it has a dongle on top, more than likely it'll work with NFC payments.
The pin pads below accept both Apple Pay and Google Wallet transactions. They're extremely common and you've probably seen these in stores plenty of times and not known that they work. This is not a definitive list these are just the ones I know for sure work.
Equinox L5200
Equinox L5300
(Requires dongle)
Verifone Mx870
Verifone Mx915
Verifone Mx925
(Requires dongle)
Ingenico iSC Touch 480
My opinion about NFC payments is that I think they're great. We should have been doing this crap five years ago as far as I'm concerned. I've been trying to sell these kinds of pin pads for years but no one has cared about NFC payments. I find it to be both fascinating and frustrating that now that Apple has NFC people are just now becoming interested. Apple sure has a way of herding the masses of *****s to the newer technologies.
Also, I don't care what is written about the security vulnerabilities of NFC communications... NFC payments are about a billion times safer in all practicality. They're safer because if a system is new enough to process NFC payments, that system is inherently safer than a system that's running older pieces of junk terminals. The software is probably more up to date, they're probably following more of the security protocols such as firewalls, network securities, strong passwords etc. The newer a system is the more safe it is. I personally trust an NFC payment a lot more than a regular credit card transaction. Ask the cashiers and store owners about NFC payments. The more the public demands NFC, the more store owners will put the pin pads in, the more secure the systems will be, and it keeps me working.
