Has Apple released any figures regarding Passbook, such as monthly usage or participating merchants? I've never seen anyone use it.
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Apple Partnering With American Express on iPhone Mobile Payments Initiative [Updated]
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Has Apple released any figures regarding Passbook, such as monthly usage or participating merchants? I've never seen anyone use it.
Don't go to Brooklyn often, but in Manhattan (and most of my travels) I never have an issue to be honest.
There is no other card (period) that offers the customer service benefits that AMEX offers. They credit you immediately, do their investigation, and you are in the loop at all times. Having the Plat card since the 90's, it is worth the fee just for the services offered. Those who are members, can attest to the offers and rewards of AMEX.
If a business chooses not to take it, so be it.
IF we have to use a card or feel like using a card its mostly "Maestro" cards linked to your bank account so you can only spent what you have on your actual bank account
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maestro_(debit_card)
But unlike Visa/Mastercard, excluding the extended payments option, Amex is not a credit card. It's a charge card. This means less ambiguity about getting paid since the cardholder has an obligation to pay their balance in full at the end of every month. Not 100% certain but I would surmise thats at least one reason why they're able to charge retailers more... because the likelihood that they'll waste time and resources on payments/transfers disputes will be a lot less.
And Maestro is a joint venture of MasterCard and EC. So it is most likely using the MasterCard processing network and would be likely be compatible with NFC payment by iPhone. We'll know more in a week!
Having lived in Germany and raised in London, I find it amusing that some believe the words of one man speak for all of Germany (and posting an article that supports their narrative is hardly scientific as I can post references from credible sources stating otherwise). I'm calling bull-shido on this one!
(I travel to Frankfurt and Berlin a few times a year for work and family, my Chase cards have EMV chips, a requirement for CC transactions for many POS systems in the EU and UK, and I rarely see anyone using cash unless for coffee or small purchases, and hotels won't take cash or debit cards as they won't cover incidentals)
We have a credit score, managed by the Schufa company.
And don't believe Bushido, Germans pay with credit cards.
Its just not very common to pay small amounts with plastic and small shops may just take Maestro debit cards, since 99% of Germans own Maestro cards.And will it ever change? I think that's why the system hasn't taken off in the UK due to the spending limit you have. I'm surprised they feel Americans can't cope with the chip and pin system to begin with? It was launched on the promise of being more secure, yet someone standing behind you can see your pin possibly, then steal your card after, although I don't know if this does happen.
I would use the system for petrol if I could, but I fill up at the cost of £55 ish. But I guess they are very concerned about your phone or card being stolen and anyone just swiping it to spend a lot of money on it.
But then you have another point, if you use the fingerprint scanner on the iPhone to make bigger payments, is it really any different to using a pin, the whole idea of these systems I thought was to just touch your card or phone to a read, no security required.
Yes sir, it's the same thing.
Canada's a few years of the States moving to EMV, even though some of the final deadlines are the same. By the end of 2011, Canada already had switched almost 3/4 of its cards over, and more than 1/2 of the POS terminals.
The downside for Canada being a close neighbor is that your cards and readers had to continue to support magstripe cards to stay backward compatible with the USA for tourism and business going both directions.
Someone could do the same watching you pull money from an ATM using your PIN
Okay. Perhaps it's now time to clear up something really important:
- EMV is not about being secure. If it were, they'd encrypt a lot more of the comms.
- EMV is only about mitigating the amount of credit card fraud.
As for contactless purchases, what they've found, is that people buy about 25% more goods if they can do it by just waving the card. So they want people to be able to do that. Balancing that is how much they could lose if a card got in the wrong hands, which is why there's such a relatively small (*) contactless purchase limit.
(*) although it's AU $100 in Australia!
Good to know... I live in Melb for almost 5 years but those kind of mobile facilities weren't there at that point of time.
So many assumptions
We tried credit and debit cards. Tried from the machines and from the counter where the person told us they don't accept cards. This was the main train station in Munich, the one where international trains arrive and depart.
Using data while roaming tends to be quite prohibitive. Not really of much use for a foreign visitor.
See above. Credit and debit cards. Just a very backward approach to use of anything other than money.
I am British. We have had chip and pin for years and it has worked everywhere we have been in Europe.
We tried credit and debit cards. Tried from the machines and from the counter where the person told us they don't accept cards. This was the main train station in Munich, the one where international trains arrive and depart.
Using data while roaming tends to be quite prohibitive. Not really of much use for a foreign visitor.
See above. Credit and debit cards. Just a very backward approach to use of anything other than money.
I am British. We have had chip and pin for years and it has worked everywhere we have been in Europe.
I see plenty of people using it in M&S, Tesco, Pret, Starbucks, etc.
Sure, Chip & Pin is still dominant, but not sure it's accurate to say that Contactless hasn't taken off. Obviously the transaction limit is an issue. But hopefully this can be addressed in future by extending EMV to support mobile payments authenticated via Touch ID or whatever.
It does. This actually happened to my girlfriend recently at a pub in London. Someone obviously "shoulder surfed" her PIN, then stole her wallet. By the time she even noticed it was gone, her entire available balance had been withdrawn from a nearby ATM.
Thankfully her bank's (NatWest) fraud team were very good and very quickly compensated her for the stolen funds, after providing the Police reports etc.
But this is one reason why the banks are keen to push contactless: it's actually more secure to NOT require PIN numbers for small transactions.
If you're not going around entering a PIN every time you buy a coffee or a beer, then if the card does get stolen, it's most likely the thief will not have the PIN and the amount they can steal is limited.
We have a credit score, managed by the Schufa company.
And don't believe Bushido, Germans pay with credit cards.
Thanks. I thought it would be a little crazy if no one was using credit. Hard to imagine.
I don't quit understand this technology excitement. In Canada we pay by slipping our Amex cards into a chip reader and entering a PIN number to complete a transaction. We can also swipe our cards to pay, then enter a PIN to complete. That is what we need to do with a majority of Amex transactions because the chip readers aren't yet working at many retailers taking Amex.
I can tap my Visa card to pay at some fast food merchants (Quiznos), but not Subway, where I have to insert my card. Whenever I travel to the USA, most merchants swipe my card (vs insert for chip) and I haven't seen tap to pay, so it seems the US is behind Canada in CC security and payment options.
So now we have NFC. Don't merchants need to sign onto this and install the technology to transmit the purchase information to the phone? Doesn't that have to be integrated into their POS and information systems? Good luck with that in the USA, which hasn't adopted chip readers (vs card swipe) on a widespread basis in the US yet.
Am I missing something?
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Yes, the US is the last of the G20 countries to adopt EMV.
As noted multiple times, the US is now moving in a big way to EMV, due to the same kind of liability deadlines that made Canada and other countries switch a few years earlier.
In a way, the delay was good, because technology does get cheaper as time passes, and now many/most POS terminals come with NFC as standard. Even Apple's new payment sleds for their own stores have NFC support.
In addition, the credit card companies want to push contactless payments because the ease of it makes people spend more often. This hasn't happened so much in other countries, but the US has a combination of a lot of smartphones and people who are used to making lots of under $25 purchases by credit card swipe alone. Throw in more phones and retailers with NFC support, and it's likely to hit a tipping point.
(Note that previous Android NFC adoption attempts were foiled by carriers wanting to be in control of the Secure Element in our phones, and to push people towards their own Isis payment method. Google recently broke that hold by including Host Card Emulation APIs in Kit Kat, which allow programmers to use cloud based SEs instead. This is another tipping point push, one that Apple will likely exploit as well.)
No. I think you hit it on the head. However, I think that with Apple behind it, it may take off. The reasoning for this opinion is that they have made agreements with the card companies (the major ones in the US), and the functionality of the NFC will be added to the newer card reading machines.
Using a chip and pin for my work login, one factor that I can see:
Durability of the cards. I have to get a new chip for my ID card every 18 months (log in 2-6 times/day), due to the contacts on the chip wearing out.
With people using credit cards (SWAG) 10-12x/week, the 3 year cycle may work, but I guess it may be cultural.
In 7 days...
Not true. Card processors receive more money with a signature than they do with a PIN number. It's all about money, not anything else.
I have been noticing new terminals popping up.
McDonalds restaurants seem to have tap to pay on their terminals, though I've never seen it used.
I was in Whole Foods on Monday and noticed they have tap to pay on their credit card terminals. The tap to pay area had the logos of Visa, MC, Amex and even Discover's tap to pay cards. Discover's is called Zip apparently.
I was in my local Wal-Mart about a month ago and used my new card that has an EMV chip. I swiped the card, but the terminal somehow knew I had a chip card and actually prompted me to insert the chip instead to complete the transaction. I didn't notice at the time if it also had a NFC reader.
I also recently noticed that my Home Depot store had new chip reading terminals installed....I tried inserting my card, but it didn't do anything, so I had to swipe. Also didn't notice if there was an NFC reader, since I wasn't looking for it yet.
In any case, the hardware changes are happening....so hopefully Apple's implementation will work widely almost immediately. No reason to rush out to buy a new phone with a new feature if it only works at Nordstroms! I don't see any reason for Apple to be working with individual retailers unless those deals are about further integrating loyalty programs/perks, etc. into Passbook.
McDonalds restaurants seem to have tap to pay on their terminals, though I've never seen it used.
I was in Whole Foods on Monday and noticed they have tap to pay on their credit card terminals. The tap to pay area had the logos of Visa, MC, Amex and even Discover's tap to pay cards. Discover's is called Zip apparently.
I was in my local Wal-Mart about a month ago and used my new card that has an EMV chip. I swiped the card, but the terminal somehow knew I had a chip card and actually prompted me to insert the chip instead to complete the transaction. I didn't notice at the time if it also had a NFC reader.
I also recently noticed that my Home Depot store had new chip reading terminals installed....I tried inserting my card, but it didn't do anything, so I had to swipe. Also didn't notice if there was an NFC reader, since I wasn't looking for it yet.
In any case, the hardware changes are happening....so hopefully Apple's implementation will work widely almost immediately. No reason to rush out to buy a new phone with a new feature if it only works at Nordstroms! I don't see any reason for Apple to be working with individual retailers unless those deals are about further integrating loyalty programs/perks, etc. into Passbook.