You are right that Germany is still very cash-heavy compared to the US, but when I lived there so-called ec-cards (which are a form of debit card) were fairly popular. Not sure if that's still the case, but I would be surprised if not. Will be interesting to see for which card types the German banks will support Apple Pay, especially given that some of them are pushing their own mobile payment systems.
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Apple Pay Coming to Germany, Also Set to Launch at CVS and 7-11 Later This Year
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Vote with your dollars. And tell them as much via a brief email, “just to let you know, I have decided to no longer shop with your company until you support Apple Pay. I value my buying privacy, and I’ve told my friends the same.”
Yeah, hoping Target jumps on board at some point....I'm not sure about Walmart, based on what I've read, Walmart Pay seems to be doing decently.....If the biggest retailers (in the US) accepted it, that would another huge win for Apple Pay.
Lol.
....eh, possibly, but I think it was more about just combining the "Apple Pay coming soon" news into a single headline & thread.You are right, we like to use cash over any card though, for the obvious historic reasons: through both the GDR and WW2, we learned that giving away too much control over our property and our data is not smart. We just like to be in control... Additionally, the only real winner of all payment infrastructures is the infrastructure provider, whether it is Apple or your bank. Bakeries (which Germans are very fond of) take just cents for some bread, if they have to pay 50% of that amount to your greedy credit card provider, they only loose.
Nevertheless, Germans start to like the ease of paying wirelessly, and therefore Apple Pay will be a success in Germany. We will not buy iPhones for that feature, though.
Whatever happened to Current C?
It died the horrible, painful death it deserved.
First, it kept getting delayed over and over again.
Second, they had a data breach happen to them, before the service was even ready. This kind of eroded consumer confidence in it.
Third, you couldn't use credit cards with it. You had to link it directly to your bank account, which most people are understandably hesitant to do.
The whole thing was a cluster**** and was one of those delightful cases when something that absolutely deserved to fail, failed. It's just too bad that its writhing corpse ended up slowing contactless/Apple Pay adoption.
The delays killed it more than anything else, IMO. There are a lot of people who would have been perfectly fine with giving bank details if it meant saving a few dollars (Target's "debit" REDcard being a big example of this). With its reach, CurrentC would likely have had a decent shot had it come out around the same time as Apple Pay.
Target not accepting Apple Pay in-store is particularly ridiculous given it already accepts it in its iOS app, which means that with their new drive-up parking spaces, a customer could pay for an order to be delivered to them a few feet away rather than walking in the store and being forced to insert an antiquated chip card.
Yeah Walmart was a big part of CurrenC. Hmm who knew that a system which provides you with little fraud protection (ACH Access to your bank account), used to mine your data, stalls / works like crap and finally managed by the company behind Target and HomeDepot's data breaches, would not go well.Ding ding ding. Why do you think Walmart doesn’t like Apple Pay?
Quit bitching to Apple and request Apple Pay from your bank. Discover, Visa and Mastercard are already on board but it's up to the banks to support it.
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Also when paying make sure it is a credit charge and not debit. The money is held longer and they are charged fees. Walmart started all this because it wanted to defeat the credit card company fees. Many retailers jumped in because it's Walmart they can't lose! Visa, Mastercard, Amex jumped in with Apple Pay ASAP to kill of CurrenC which was in development hell.
Same **** happened with the Music industry and with Cellular service.
I’m ok with using Walmart pay and Apple Pay for everything else. It literally already means I can leave my house with no wallet. My public transit system got a mobile bus/train pass app with Apple Pay built into the app. Just keep a DL in the car., and soon that’s changing. Arizona is trialing and piloting a mobile driver license.
Wallet free here I come!
I can see your point with regard to privacy, but I think you are off when it comes to the fees. Last I checked, the ec-card (Girokarte/Maestro) charges 0.3% of the transaction amount, and there is no miminum fee. So paying for your Broetchen with an ec-card is not a problem for the bakery.
Generally, you are of course correct that at the end of the day the customers bear the cost of cash-less payment systems, enriching the payment networks and banks. However, given that I pay for these costs (via higher retail prices) whether I like it or not, I'd rather take advantage of the system as much as I can. Here in the US, many credit cards give significant cashback or other rewards (up to several percent of the payment amount), as well as benefits such as extended warranties and more. This is a good deal as long as you pay the card in full every month to avoid interest. Anyone who doesn't use such a card is a sucker who pays for my rewards without getting anything back.
Also, credit cards are safer than carrying cash.
Maybe jake.au is referring to small businesses like restaurants or bakeries? That’s usually where I finding using a credit card a tricky proposition when I visit my relatives in Germany. Shopping at Lidl, Norma, Hertie, Kaufhof, Rewe, etc. is fine. I remember my mom (mutti) using a credit card at Kaufhalle back in the day before they closed when I was a kid.
You're not well informed.
Germans like cash, but all younger people are very technology-friendly.
The infrastructure of most shops in Germany has long been technically equipped for ApplePay.
The banks alone are very conservative in their business. They are headed by the Deutsche Bundesbank, which gladly and successfully uses competition supervision against new models. Banks fear change and hide the positive sides of it.
That is why in Germany it is not a question of an immovable customer culture or a lack of willingness to innovate or a lack of technical infrastructure, but of lobbying by money managers and their monopoly on creating facts.
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It makes me laugh that some stores getting Apple Pay is big news that Apple announces, while really any store adding contactless has added Apple Pay. My local Ingles enabled contactless last week but I’m not seeing any headlines. Not sure if it was a national switch or just our store but still.
I’m not complaining at all - any store adding contactless is a win to me. Just a funny comparison.
Now if Target, Home Depot (another one that used to but turned it off), and maybe Publix can get on board, I’ll be pretty well covered. Even my local Ace Hardware already accepts it.
I’m not complaining at all - any store adding contactless is a win to me. Just a funny comparison.
Now if Target, Home Depot (another one that used to but turned it off), and maybe Publix can get on board, I’ll be pretty well covered. Even my local Ace Hardware already accepts it.
I find it weird that stores in the US have to adopt ApplePay deliberately. In Canada, widespread acceptance of tap payments is the norm and that means ApplePay is accepted by default. I haven't used cash or plastic in over a year. I don't even carry a wallet anymore.
Contactless cards aren't really a thing in the US, so Apple Pay is in effect what contactless is called here. In fact, cashiers would likely get extremely confused if you asked to use contactless--even if the terminal accepts it.
It‘s about time Apple Pay hits my country, just hope my bank is on board. I effectively shop at a supermarket every day during lunch break and I always use my contactless cars to pay at the self checkout terminal. Apple Pay will make this a breeze.
If my main bank isn‘t on board I still have a n26 credit card. It‘s going to suck having to charge it up but oh well, better than having to carry around my wallet 24/7.
If my main bank isn‘t on board I still have a n26 credit card. It‘s going to suck having to charge it up but oh well, better than having to carry around my wallet 24/7.