Google now lets you send money as an email attachment

Yes, you read that right. You finally have a simple way to receive your inheritance from the long-lost relative who somehow obtained your email address prior to dying with lots of cash. Kinda. Google has expanded the functionality of its mobile payment service, Google Wallet, to allow users to send and receive money over Gmail.

Of course, there are a few catches: the service is currently only rolling out to users over the age of 18 in the United States, and you need to have a Google Wallet account to send and receive money. But it will allow those users to simply click an additional Gmail attachment icon when composing an email, and type in an amount, before sending the cash to any recipient — even someone who isn’t using a Gmail address. According to Google Wallet product manager Travis Green, it will be “free to send money if your bank account is linked to Google Wallet or using your Google Wallet Balance, and low fees apply to send money using your linked credit or debit card.” Those fees are 2.9% of the cost per transaction (with a minimum transaction amount of US$0.30).

While the move is sure to raise eyebrows about the risk of sending money via something as ubiquitous as email, the company says that its Google Wallet Purchase Protection covers you 100% against certain eligible unauthorized payments, as long as they are reported within 180 days after they occur. The search giant seems to envision the option being used for everything like paying your rent to reimbursing a friend for a loan, which makes sense — and means the ease of use is likely to drive adoption of Wallet, especially when, in order to receive money, contacts will have to sign up for the service in before they can transfer the cash to a bank account.

The option to send money via email will only be available for desktop users initially, although Google says it plans to bring the feature to Gmail’s mobile apps in the future. Google Wallet’s mobile app currently allows users to tap to pay for goods in participating stores, shop online as well as send and receive money on their phone.