ExxonMobil Now Supports Apple Pay in 'Speedpass+' App

[MacRumors]

Following an announcement in January, ExxonMobil today officially launched Apple Pay support within its Speedpass+ iOS app, letting customers pay for gas or car washes directly from their iPhone (via CNET). Although most of ExxonMobil's stations come equipped with an RFID station for mobile payments, the company decided to focus on software within the app to further streamline the transaction process.

"Anything that involves the pump from a hardware point of view takes years to deploy and is extremely expensive," Bryant Russell, Americas program manager for mobile payment and loyalty at ExxonMobil, said during a demo of the app at the San Mateo gas station.

The rollout today will be seen at more than 6,000 ExxonMobil gas stations in 46 states, with a goal to expand to 2,000 by the summer and all 10,000 locations across the United States by the end of 2016.

The Speedpass+ app will use GPS to check the exact location a user is at, ask which pump they are using, and confirm the purchase with Touch ID. Locations with spotty GPS will be guided through a QR code-scanning step or manual search process within the app.

Once payment in the app is finished, users have "about 45 seconds" to start pumping gas, or Speedpass+ will time out and require users to start over from the beginning. Similar to Apple's own Wallet app, Speedpass+ will track the purchase history of every transaction at ExxonMobil locations.

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Last year, Chevron launched a pilot program for Apple Pay -- using NFC terminals -- in a focused location within the Bay Area. ExxonMobil's widespread introduction of Apple Pay today is the first big rollout for the mobile payment service by a gas company to date, despite its software-focused rollout. Next, the company plans to begin introducing Apple Pay into its convenience stores along with linking its Plenti loyalty program to the service.

The Speedpass+ app can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Article Link: ExxonMobil Now Supports Apple Pay in 'Speedpass+' App

 

[Chupa Chupa]

That would be cool if they were not always .20-.30 per gallon more than the next highest station around here. That's a steep price for not that much additional convenience.

 

[patrickcwelsh]

How does this work in states like New Jersey where we don't pump our own gas?

 

[multipasser]

Wait what? So now you HAVE to use your phone while using a tankstation? Before it was not allowed because of firehazards.

 

[Warbrain]

Wait what? So now you HAVE to use your phone while using a tankstation? Before it was not allowed because of firehazards.

Use it in the car. Problem solved. That's why they're giving you 45 seconds.

 

[gsmornot]

Most of my gas comes from my grocery pumps due to discount savings but I'm going to install this for travel. Last time my physical card was hit with bogus charges it was from a gas pump. At least with this I have a more secure option for the times I can't get to my regular station. Also, I support ApplePay where I can.

 

[Anijake]

Tried to make an account at the website using 1Password to generate a 20 character password using the requirements, I keep getting this.

"You entered an invalid password. Please re-enter password with at least 8 characters with at least one capital letter, one number, one special character, and cannot contain more than 2 repeating characters."

I have repeating characters off, 3 symbols, and 3 digits elected, and it still says my password is week or average.

So far a fail

 

[vooke]

Apple Pay is not going nowhere

 

[Mad Mac Maniac]

This seems less convenient than just swiping a card. DOA.

Implement NFC at the pump for Apple Pay. When I can just tap my Apple Watch to the pump it will be an immediate win.

 

[macfacts]

This seems less convenient than just swiping a card. DOA.

Implement NFC at the pump for Apple Pay. When I can just tap my Apple Watch to the pump it will be an immediate win.

Apple doesn't let 3rd party developers use the NFC in the iPhone.

 

[Trik]

This seems misleading. We need different names for NFC Apple Pay and the Apple Pay that is implemented in 3rd party apps. The level of effort for one versus the other is significant.

 

[xero9]

This seems less convenient than just swiping a card. DOA.

Implement NFC at the pump for Apple Pay. When I can just tap my Apple Watch to the pump it will be an immediate win.

To be honest, I'm okay with this implementation. Gas pumps are the last place I want to use a physical card at..

 

[Jayderek]

Apple Pay is not going nowhere

so Apple Pay is going somewhere?

 

[kyjaotkb]

Apple Pay in the US is getting ridiculous... Unlocking a phone and opening an app will take more or as much time than putting your card in the card slot and typing your PIN... Why can't the US agree on a standard for contactless payments exactly? Why is it so easy in the UK?

 

[tmiw]

The rollout today will be seen at more than 6,000 ExxonMobil gas stations in 46 states, with a goal to expand to 2,000 by the summer and all 10,000 locations across the United States by the end of 2016.

Typo? Why would the number of gas stations go down before going back up?

This seems less convenient than just swiping a card. DOA.

How so? If it's cold outside, the app based approach at least lets you stay in the car until you've paid.

 

[69Mustang]

This seems less convenient than just swiping a card. DOA.

Implement NFC at the pump for Apple Pay. When I can just tap my Apple Watch to the pump it will be an immediate win.

"Anything that involves the pump from a hardware point of view takes years to deploy and is extremely expensive," - Exxon

This is why you probably won't see NFC at the pump any time soon (mass market). IF they can find a way to surreptitiously pass that cost on to consumers, you may see a quicker adoption.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Sounds very convoluted. Rube Goldberg would be proud...

 

[tmiw]

Apple Pay in the US is getting ridiculous... Unlocking a phone and opening an app will take more or as much time than putting your card in the card slot and typing your PIN... Why can't the US agree on a standard for contactless payments exactly? Why is it so easy in the UK?

Honestly, it's no big deal. Apple Pay is going to be far more popular in-app than in-store anyway, especially since in-app enables stuff like mobile-only checkout at stores (which will save far more time in terms of not needing to wait in lines than the 2-3 seconds that tapping would shave off).

 

[stu.h]

so Apple Pay is going somewhere?

Was thinking the same thing.

 

[69Mustang]

Typo? Why would the number of gas stations go down before going back up?

6K today, 2K more by the summer, all 10K by the end of the year. To be fair, the sentence is quite clunky.

 

[Mac 128]

This seems less convenient than just swiping a card. DOA.

Implement NFC at the pump for Apple Pay. When I can just tap my Apple Watch to the pump it will be an immediate win.

Agreed. Why are they spending money like this to implement Pay, when it's less convenient? They are going to have to switch to NFC capable readers by 2017 anyway, or assume all fraud liability, and I have to imagine there's a lot of fraud at gas pumps. So what's with this intermediate step that nobody needs? I guess enthusiastic Pay customers might pay more to buy their gas at Exxon for the prospect of paying with Pay even if it's more complicated ...

Apple doesn't let 3rd party developers use the NFC in the iPhone.

That's irrelevant at this point. There shouldn't be a need to whip out a third party app at POS to use Pay.

This seems misleading. We need different names for NFC Apple Pay and the Apple Pay that is implemented in 3rd party apps. The level of effort for one versus the other is significant.

I agree, this isn't Pay, it's no better than having to whip out the Starbucks app to buy a coffee -- it's even got the QR code as a backup.

 

[heeloliver]

not going nowhere

so it's going everywhere?

 

[gsmornot]

Apple Pay in the US is getting ridiculous... Unlocking a phone and opening an app will take more or as much time than putting your card in the card slot and typing your PIN... Why can't the US agree on a standard for contactless payments exactly? Why is it so easy in the UK?

My opinion but I don't think this is a standards issue so much as a cost issue. Most places are trying to find ways to get something going without the expense of replacing their infrastructure. In the future they will do more with the terminals and things but the cost to pull all the old hardware and install new is very high. You have the advantage of the forward thinking in your area that bought the hardware since cards forced the issue. Our cards still have mag stripes on them and many places I shop still only use that method. Very few even use the chip still.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

Currently I actually walk inside the Chevron station to use Apple Pay so I guess an app is slightly more convenient but then again the app is giving data to the parent company whereas Chevron gets the full anonymity treatment of Apple Pay from my watch.

 

[Anijake]

Okay, was able to make account on the phone with a less secure password, but it does not let me sign in on the website with that password, really strange.

Also this only works works with stations that take SpeedPass+, not regular SpeedPass. There is only one station out of 10 within in 3 miles that is a + station.