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Honestly, I'm going to go on a rant here -

NFC payments will flop in the United States. The people over here are just so lazy and stupid that the payment method will never take off. The merchants are also too cheap and slow to adopt to anything that has to do with up to date technology. Every card reader should have been CONSUMER FACING years ago. Even if the EMV slot and NFC antenna were disabled. Why do most of these food places have the stupid register with the swipe reader attached to the screen on the machine? Verifone has six different consumer facing devices that could've been installed years ago little by little at a time to avoid such a huge cost to upgrade all of their machines at once.

The other day I was texting one of my friends about how her Discover card will give her a 10% bonus on purchases with Apple Pay and guess what she said? "Oh I'd rather just swipe my card instead." Oh so you're going to turn down FREE MONEY and security?? I gave up with her and just fought against myself in my brain to not give her a lesson about why she's an idiot.

It's just pointless to even try anything to make anything up to date in the good 'ole USA. There's a reason why every other country thinks American's are stupid.
 
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Honestly, I'm going to go on a rant here -

NFC payments will flop in the United States. The people over here are just so lazy and stupid that the payment method will never take off. The merchants are also too cheap and slow to adopt to anything that has to do with up to date technology. Every card reader should have been CONSUMER FACING years ago. Even if the EMV slot and NFC antenna were disabled. Why do most of these food places have the stupid register with the swipe reader attached to the screen on the machine? Verifone has six different consumer facing devices that could've been installed years ago little by little at a time to avoid such a huge cost to upgrade all of their machines at once.

The other day I was texting one of my friends about how her Discover card will give her a 10% bonus on purchases with Apple Pay and guess what she said? "Oh I'd rather just swipe my card instead." Oh so you're going to turn down FREE MONEY and security?? I gave up with her and just fought against myself in my brain to not give her a lesson about why she's an idiot.

It's just pointless to even try anything to make anything up to date in the good 'ole USA. There's a reason why every other country thinks American's are stupid.

Without getting a bunch of hate reply I'm just going to say that I agree with you and leave it here. Let's just say, sometimes (most of the times) in the good 'ole USA, we use the word "Freedom" too liberally.

And as for giving out advice, I find myself getting bitter as I get older. Sometimes I don't blame old people for being cranky, just too much crap in life. These days, it's better to just sit back, relax, enjoy the show, and say yourself "I told you so".

Example: I recently had a discussion with a friend about tablet. He basically told me he needed a Surface Pro, I told him it's a great machine. He then ask me what about a Toshiba or something else, I said to him Surface Pro is worth the money. He turns around and told me Surface Pro is too much money, I then said: then get whatever fits your budget. He turned around and told me he might just go get the iPad Pro. This is the type of conversation that I'd like to have less.
 
Without getting a bunch of hate reply I'm just going to say that I agree with you and leave it here. Let's just say, sometimes (most of the times) in the good 'ole USA, we use the word "Freedom" too liberally.

And as for giving out advice, I find myself getting bitter as I get older. Sometimes I don't blame old people for being cranky, just too much crap in life. These days, it's better to just sit back, relax, enjoy the show, and say yourself "I told you so".

Example: I recently had a discussion with a friend about tablet. He basically told me he needed a Surface Pro, I told him it's a great machine. He then ask me what about a Toshiba or something else, I said to him Surface Pro is worth the money. He turns around and told me Surface Pro is too much money, I then said: then get whatever fits your budget. He turned around and told me he might just go get the iPad Pro. This is the type of conversation that I'd like to have less.

It's not even just with NFC payments, it's with chip & pin as well.

There should have been RED letters from Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express advising merchants, merchant service providers, and banks of the deadline to change over to EMV technology, or else they'll pay for fraudulent charges.

Why aren't there commercials about EMV from the major card issuers?
 
It's not even just with NFC payments, it's with chip & pin as well.

There should have been RED letters from Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express advising merchants, merchant service providers, and banks of the deadline to change over to EMV technology, or else they'll pay for fraudulent charges.

Why aren't there commercials about EMV from the major card issuers?

Now that the responsibility of fraud has shifted to the merchant, I don't think the credit card companies care much about it. If you think about it, why should they care? They don't have to pay for it. I feel this whole thing of shifting of responsibility is a very passive aggressive way of forcing the merchant to switch. Unfortunately, not all merchants are well informed.
 
A person with an iPhone using it to pay at Starbucks while surfing the web on his macbook. It's the most concentrated specific version of a hipster I can conjure. ^_^

To be fair hipsters don't drink in Starbucks, basics drink coffee in Starbucks. Hipsters are strictly third wave artisan coffee shops only.
 
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It's not even just with NFC payments, it's with chip & pin as well.

There should have been RED letters from Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express advising merchants, merchant service providers, and banks of the deadline to change over to EMV technology, or else they'll pay for fraudulent charges.

Why aren't there commercials about EMV from the major card issuers?

No one actually wanted to do chip. It's only starting to become a thing now because we basically have no choice. If you keep that in mind, Visa/MC/issuers' decisions start to make a lot more sense.
 
funny to read how slow the takeup is in the US. SInce Apple Pay was introduced here in the UK, I have been using it on day one in 80-90% of the places I shop at, including independent shops, restaurants, the Tube... Without a pre-existing standardized contactless infrastructure, Apple Pay will not take off anywhere, and that is I think why Apple are holding off launching into more countries. The immediate success in the UK and the disastrous slow takeup in the US speak of themselves.

Exactly. Why not roll Apple Pay out in Australia first? Just to give you an idea: Australia has 1/12 the population of the US, but 10x the number of contactless payment terminals compatible with Visa, Mastercard and Amex.

Taxis, parking meters, vending machines, restaurants, supermarkets... I can't even remember the last place I shopped that didn't have a contactless terminal. Swipe/sign has been completely abolished years ago.

Apple also has the largest market share of all smartphone makers in Australia.

Also, there are 4 national banks (who own many of the smaller banks). It would have been the easiest roll out in history, and would have shown US retailers how it can/should work.
 
funny to read how slow the takeup is in the US. SInce Apple Pay was introduced here in the UK, I have been using it on day one in 80-90% of the places I shop at, including independent shops, restaurants, the Tube... Without a pre-existing standardized contactless infrastructure, Apple Pay will not take off anywhere, and that is I think why Apple are holding off launching into more countries. The immediate success in the UK and the disastrous slow takeup in the US speak of themselves.

I don't know where you shop but I'm struggling to find many places that accept Apple Pay. So far I've only seen it in McDonalds. Contactless payments is still a real hit and miss. I would say maybe 20% of the shops I use accept contactless. It's seems a very slow roll out.
 
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I don't know where you shop but I'm struggling to find many places that accept Apple Pay. So far I've only seen it in McDonalds. Contactless payments is still a real hit and miss. I would say maybe 20% of the shops I use accept contactless. It's seems a very slow roll out.

London here:
M&S, Boots, Tesco, some Sainsbury's (not all), The Co-Operative, TFL, vending machines in airports, Domino's Pizza, countless independent pubs and coffee shops, Starbucks, Caffe Nero, Pret......
 
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I know right?! Makes me laugh when practically everywhere I shop has AP now and the US is getting all hard over a coffee chain. Even Morrisons (a big UK supermarket) accepts it, which is great as I get about £30 worth of stuff every so often there.

While we have Apple Pay in seemingly(ish) every shop in the country, we are still hindered by the £30 limit. In the States, it's just the opposite problem.

Don't get me wrong, I'd rather have 'our' problem. Every day I pay for all transport, coffees and lunch using Apple Pay. I can go weeks at a time without needing my wallet in central London. But, when I go to the supermarket at the weekend, it's back to chip and pin because it's ~£70.

I can't imagine the limit will be lifted over here any time soon. Just like the US has little incentive to adopt NFC, the UK has little incentive to change its current implementation. Yet.
 
I don't know where you shop but I'm struggling to find many places that accept Apple Pay. So far I've only seen it in McDonalds. Contactless payments is still a real hit and miss. I would say maybe 20% of the shops I use accept contactless. It's seems a very slow roll out.

But you're in the UK?! Don't look for the Apple Pay logo. Anywhere with NFC will accept Apple Pay. Most shops you visit will accept it, unless you live in a very remote place.
 
I don't know where you shop but I'm struggling to find many places that accept Apple Pay. So far I've only seen it in McDonalds. Contactless payments is still a real hit and miss. I would say maybe 20% of the shops I use accept contactless. It's seems a very slow roll out.

I live in a town with a population of 9000+ and there are more than 18 businesses within 1 mile of my house which accept contactless/ Pay.

The main supermarket is an Asda which doesn't have contactless and we will not have a McDonalds until Xmas.
 
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funny to read how slow the takeup is in the US. SInce Apple Pay was introduced here in the UK, I have been using it on day one in 80-90% of the places I shop at, including independent shops, restaurants, the Tube... Without a pre-existing standardized contactless infrastructure, Apple Pay will not take off anywhere, and that is I think why Apple are holding off launching into more countries. The immediate success in the UK and the disastrous slow takeup in the US speak of themselves.

There's a lesson to be learnt here by Mr. Musk.

The reason that electric cars are dead in the water is because there is no pre-existing infrastructure to support them. To build that infrastructure would cost a fortune and take decades.

Also, they would short-circuit, of course. :)
 
I think the only place that really stands out to me is Starbucks. Chilis is alright and I personally do not like KFC, yuck!
 
While we have Apple Pay in seemingly(ish) every shop in the country, we are still hindered by the £30 limit. In the States, it's just the opposite problem.

Don't get me wrong, I'd rather have 'our' problem. Every day I pay for all transport, coffees and lunch using Apple Pay. I can go weeks at a time without needing my wallet in central London. But, when I go to the supermarket at the weekend, it's back to chip and pin because it's ~£70.

I can't imagine the limit will be lifted over here any time soon. Just like the US has little incentive to adopt NFC, the UK has little incentive to change its current implementation. Yet.

Problem is, its lack of comprehensiveness could be its undoing.

Until you can buy a car or a house with Apple Pay, we will always need debit or credit cards. And if people are used to using cards, why should they bother juggling multiple payment methods when they don't have to think when using cards?

This is why the wallet is unlikely to disappear for the foreseeable future.
 
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London here:
M&S, Boots, Tesco, some Sainsbury's (not all), The Co-Operative, TFL, vending machines in airports, Domino's Pizza, countless independent pubs and coffee shops, Starbucks, Caffe Nero, Pret......
Was going to post the same!
Contactless is everywhere in London and the surrounding areas.
 
Apple as a company doesn't know how to work well with other major companies. The problem with Apple Pay is that it only provides benefits to consumers and to Apple. It doesn't provide any financial benefit to the actual people that have to invest in hardware to make it available. People still carry cards and cash, so for many companies, offering a niche payment option for the convenience of a few isn't really worth the time/investment for a lot of companies. It's a major oversight on Apple's part.

You're really missing the point here. Apple doesn't have to team up or partner with any retailers, just the banks and the payment companies. Apple Pay works anywhere contactless or nfc payments are taken so the retailer doesnt have to make any changes to their infrastructure specifically for Apple Pay.

NFC payments are taking the world by storm and its only natural that retailers will upgrade their terminals to eventually support this technology. Then they will automatically support Apple, Samsung, Android or Microsoft pay and contactless cards whether they like it or not. NFC is not a niche payment option.
 
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Look, before Apple rolled out Apple Pay with the iPhone 6 and 6+, few Americans knew what NFC mobile payments were unless they stayed in Japan, South Korea and certain parts of Europe for a while. But now, I've seen quite a lot of merchants installing Apple Pay-compatible NFC terminals, and I expect within the next 18 months a lot more Apple Pay-compatible point-of-sale terminals, especially now with the requirement for new POS terminals that must use the new EMV "chipped" credit and debit cards. As such, thanks to the new policy from the major credit card issuers now making the merchant responsible for credit card fraud, we'll see a sweeping replacement of point-of-sale terminals at Starbucks, and the company will use this change to install new POS terminals that not only accept Apple Pay, but also eventually Android Pay, too.
 
Look, before Apple rolled out Apple Pay with the iPhone 6 and 6+, few Americans knew what NFC mobile payments were unless they stayed in Japan, South Korea and certain parts of Europe for a while. But now, I've seen quite a lot of merchants installing Apple Pay-compatible NFC terminals, and I expect within the next 18 months a lot more Apple Pay-compatible point-of-sale terminals, especially now with the requirement for new POS terminals that must use the new EMV "chipped" credit and debit cards. As such, thanks to the new policy from the major credit card issuers now making the merchant responsible for credit card fraud, we'll see a sweeping replacement of point-of-sale terminals at Starbucks, and the company will use this change to install new POS terminals that not only accept Apple Pay, but also eventually Android Pay, too.

Unfortunately in this case knowing is one thing, but getting the merchants to have both chip-and-signature and NFC is another. According to another guy at the forum, despite the fact that the merchants can technically support both NFC and chip it doesn't actually mean the merchant WILL have to have both payment available. They can choose which to use, and I suspect in order to comply with the credit card company, they will go with the chip. Also, there are merchants that started out with NFC, and disabled it right after they made their chip available (e.g., Homedepot).

Now I'm not saying that they should have just one payment options on, I would prefer both. But at this point having chip payment on will satisfy what the credit card company want already. On a different note, I find it rather stupid that we american has to implement the half-assed chip-and-signature. We just had to be different, can't do what the rest of the world is doing and just go all chip-and-pin. We just love to create the confusion.
 
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For what it's worth, the current stats over at https://emvacceptedhere.com/ show:

Total number of retailers: 550
Excluding large retailers: 525
Total number of locations: 24409
Excluding large retailers: 862
NFC supporting retailers: 171 (31.1% of all retailers)
NFC supporting locations: 14302 (58.6% of all locations)

I wouldn't try to conclude anything from this yet though; the sample is likely not random and/or large enough and people might have chosen "no" for NFC due to not attempting it. Plus this doesn't include the locations that have NFC enabled but not EMV/chip.
 
You're really missing the point here. Apple doesn't have to team up or partner with any retailers, just the banks and the payment companies. Apple Pay works anywhere contactless or nfc payments are taken so the retailer doesnt have to make any changes to their infrastructure specifically for Apple Pay.

NFC payments are taking the world by storm and its only natural that retailers will upgrade their terminals to eventually support this technology. Then they will automatically support Apple, Samsung, Android or Microsoft pay and contactless cards whether they like it or not. NFC is not a niche payment option.

But Apple Pay IS a niche option, and in the US, most retailers - especially small-medium sized businesses don't have NFC enabled hardware. Apple pay relies on NFC. All the banks in the world can support Apple Pay all they like, but Apple won't have a single customer using it unless the retailers have the hardware and software to make it possible.

FYI, AMEX NFC doesn't work on all terminals, neither does Union Pay - some only accept Mastercard and Visa. Which means that even those companies with NFC enabled terminals still might not be able to apple pay - especially with AMEX/Diners/UnionPay cards.

Apple seriously underestimated their influence and power in this instance. Customers might want it, but the number of customers using Apple Pay is so few that it's not a compelling reason for most business to change anything.
 
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