Google Pay is the go-to option for mobile payments on Android — well, unless you live somewhere that uses Google Wallet. Its ease of use and wide-ranging availability in stores make it the simplest option for people who no longer want to take their wallets out to pay. Some users are now enjoying an unexpected windfall, with the app depositing some surprise cashback rewards into their accounts.

Several Reddit users report receiving some strange cashback credits after using Google Pay for their purchases. One lucky soul received more than $20 in cashback after purchasing a snack and a drink for a couple bucks. Another accumulated nearly $100 across six different cashback rewards. Both received the same mysterious-sounding reasoning from the app: they received the rewards for "dogfooding the Google Pay remittance experience."

Dogfooding, you may recall, refers to software builds really just meant for internal testing — the devs are forced to "eat their own dogfood," as it were, experiencing the worst errors firsthand and (hopefully) resolving them before any public beta release. One theory raised in the Reddit discussion suggests that the cashback rewards could be tied to Google's new program which guarantees flight prices at the price point it displayed.

Comments in both threads include reports from multiple users who have all received different amounts of cashback rewards. Some claim they had received just enough for a quick meal, while others alleged the app had deposited enough to cover their rent, car payment, and insurance — all while having several hundred left over.

So where's your money? Well, if you were lucky enough to benefit from this presumptive glitch, you can check if you received any cashback in the "View offers" section of the Pay app. Users looking to withdraw those funds into their bank accounts can do so, though we're a bit curious how Google might react and if any of those transfers will ultimately go through.

As of now, these rewards appear limited to US users, as they are the only ones — along with Singapore — to still use Google Pay and not the internationally adopted Google Wallet.

UPDATE: 2023/04/06 13:54 EST BY STEPHEN SCHENCK

Google "resolves" the free-money problem

We knew the good times couldn't last. Just a day after we first started hearing reports of Pay users experiencing some unexpected deposits into their accounts, Google has turned off the tap. If you happened to get your hands on some of that free money and managed to move it to an external account, you may be in the clear. But if it was still sitting around, Google is snatching those erroneous funds back.

Thanks: Mishaal