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Apple Card to Lose Magnetic Stripe By 2029
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Even the chip readers will be obsolete as time goes by.
The industry is going no contact almost across the board. The chip readers and cards wear with time and present processing time issues (remember standing in line at the grocery store as some luddite wrote out a check? A DAMN CHECK?) Similar issues with the chip cards. They slow down transaction times and make for longer lines at retailers, plus they wear out. The contactless readers are static by design and last as long as the electronics. Keeping lines moving at retailers is kinda important.
The only place I still use my physical card is for across the counter transactions at the local farmer's market, drive thrus, and for gas at the price club. The market has their machine behind the cold case and I have to hand them the card. The price club (BJ's) still does not take contactless at the pump here, but Costco does. Unfortunately, Costco is visa or ATM debit only, and my credit union is MC.
Almost everything is Apple pay via my watch anymore. I'm more inclined to leave the house without my wallet (or my phone) than my watch.
I wish Wally World would finally take Apple Pay. I still go there for things like kitty litter and car stuff sometimes, and it's close to home.
Using a card itself is a legacy thing. In my country, even the banking apps now can do QR code payment. Completely contactless. Nothing extra to bring other than my phone.
I thought the pandemic would've taught us something... Go contactless people.
I thought the pandemic would've taught us something... Go contactless people.
it's 2039, a lone, sleek, chrome and carbon/plasti-steel electronic vehicle slices through the shimmering desert heat like a shark through water. It seemingly floats along on a sun-melted highway in a forgotten desert on the edge of the radiation zone. The vehicle pulls up to a filling station, the driver, wearing all white and silver exits the gull-wing doors gracefully and walks to the ramshackle building that serves as a storefront and garage. Antique advertisements from yesteryear play on cracked electronic billboard. A grizzled, bearded old man wearing overalls covered in grease is leaned back in rickety chair drinking from a flask. The driver and the man stare at each other or several seconds before the driver asks: "I need water for my exo-hydrogen cell vehicle, do you have any to spare?" The old man spits a black liquid and squints at the driver: "It'll cost you, water is precious in these parts, and we only take this"; The old man presents the obsolescent magnetic strip card reader to the driver, who looks in horror at the device, then looks to bird-view camera and screams; "Nooooooo!" -[The old man laughs wickedly as ominous music builds to a crescendo] fade to black.
Chips were a step back from swipes over here. So slow. Many years after Europe, contactless is finally becoming ubiquitous. Maybe by 2029 we'll also be able to retire the dollar bill. Just kidding, that would be insane.
1 - I've ordered the replacement for our final gas engine in my household - our ten year old Civic is getting replaced with a Model Y.
2 - Even when I had more gas engines, I was quick to switch to contactless... unattended credit card readers, like those at a gas station, are easily the most common to have card skimmers at them. Card only needs to get skimmed once to decide to stop using gas station card readers.
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I'm most surprised that I work at a credit card processing company and I heard this news from MacRumors before I heard it at work. This is probably a consequence of going all remote... I'm stuck in my corner that focuses on taking payments online, so I don't hear about other people in the office who deal with POS transactions. This kind of info naturally spreads via organic "water cooler" conversation around the office, but now that we're siloed off and only interact with people who are officially working on the same projects as us...
We brought all the Facebook silos and Google bubbles and brought them into the workplace by going remote, to make everyone even more clueless about what they don't know.
Go somewhere in middle of nowhere, USA, population 300, and try to find or use technology from this century. In a lot of cases the data infrastructure is from the 1980’s at best. Too few people to make it profitable locally and no requirement for companies to maintain and upgrade. So they don’t.
Ahhhhh, Portillo's, the greatest cheeseburger's of a fast food place (IMHO). Making me think of it now and its 30min to my nearest one.
Am seeing gas stations slowly transition to chip readers and contactless, but there's still a good amount of data strip readers in those.
Do have to point out, had a bad storm about 10 years ago and took the power out for a week or so..retailers still took credit cards via the raised lettering and carbon copy's otherwise it was cash you happened to have or nothing. As we go optimizing and reducing costs the whole structure we depend on becomes incredibly brittle (whether the break is a power outage or a bad virus or whatever).
Yeah, the problem I have with many of these changes is that people & companies have known about the changes for years, but haven't bothered to buy new readers. And when no one has cards with magnetic stripes anymore, they balk like the sky is falling. Sure, huge multinational chain stores probably need to replace thousands of readers, but these are the same companies that pay their CEOs millions, if not billions, of dollars. They get no sympathy from me. Only places that might get a little sympathy might be the mom & pop stores, who might have small, tight margins to buy new equipment.Appreciate the heads up. Don't wanna be caught off guard 8 years form now.
Pffffttt half the places i go have their chip machines broken making me use magnetic strip anyways lololol freaking walmarts
I see that you're also in the Chicagoland area. Portillo's is awesome! I guess they're going to go public, too. I also like Gabriel Iglesias' standup routine about it:
Their drive throughs are pretty darn good, too. Wonder what they'll be like once magnetic stripes go away.
It has taken entirely too long for all of the American credit card companies and businesses to get on board with this. Gas stations are by far the worst but I still find myself needing to swipe every so often at retailers.
The card is free why not get it? It’s really nice. It comes in a fancy box and it’s super heavy. I think I can use it as a ninja throwing star.
My Amex had a chip in 2000, and I never had any chance to use it (on that issued card). Amex told me they would send me a chip reader for online purchases, but it never arrived. I have seen people selling them on eBay, and I was able to find this photo showing the box contents with the cardmember letter.
Chip and Pin did come to the US but even if you knew you could use it there was a good chance you never did.
It took a pandemic to get Publix to start accepting contactless payments. I wish I could use it everywhere.
I wish I could relate!
I agree. I have had people on this very forum argue to me that Apple Pay is no more convenient than getting a card out of a wallet. Boggles my mind someone would think that. I can double click on my watch button and pay in seconds.
Portillo's has expanded to Florida also.
Can you even imagine letting a clerk make an imprint of your credit card these days?
This is like, "Yes, please rip me off!"
I used to ignore the chip and swipe from the start cause it's usually faster, but a lot of places started disabling that unless you've already attempted and failed the chip.
To be fair to gas stations, it must be hard investing in technology that discourages entering the store when the product customer comes to you for is slowly becoming unnecessary.
I don’t take my physical Apple card anywhere because I have other cards that give me better rewards. I use Apple Card only for Apple Pay.