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Apple Pay Competitor CurrentC Detailed as Convoluted System With Minimal Consumer Benefit

caesarp said:
How about right from the horse's mouth? Here's the CrappyC (err, CurrentC) support document -- which I found on the Internet (TechCrunch needs to thank me):

http://support.currentc.com/

"d.Paying with Your CurrentC Wallet – Retail Locations

To pay with your CurrentC app you must:
1.Have downloaded and installed the CurrentC application
2.Have registered your account with CurrentC
3.Have added at least one payment account.

Once you’ve completed these three steps, you can start using your CurrentC app to purchase goods and services at any of our participating locations. To make a payment using your CurrentC app at a store, select the ‘Pay with CurrentC’ option at the register (If there isn’t an option available inform the cashier or checkout clerk that you would like to pay with CurrentC) then follow the steps below.
◾Open your CurrentC application
◾Enter your 4-digit passcode
◾Press the Pay button
◾Either scan the Secure Paycode that the cashier presents (default) or press the Show button at the bottom of your screen to allow the cashier to scan your Secure Paycode
◾Select the payment account that you would like to use
◾Press the Pay Now button"
Click to expand...
Lol,i can surely convince my wife to use something like that :D

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scottsjack said:
What a great suck-up-to-Apple, click-bait headline. I don't even want to know what MacRumors' editors do with pictures of Steve, Jony and Tim.
Click to expand...

And your point is?
 
jettredmont said:
Funny thing is, those companies (CVS, Rite-Aid, Walmart, etc) are going to lose a lot more than $500k in profits over those three years. CVS made $34.6M in revenue, of which over $6M was profit, in just the last quarter. Over three years, that translates to $72M (if all quarters were like the one ending in June 2014, which is probably low-balling it). That $500k is just 1/144th of their profits. That is, if they lose 1% of sales due to refusing to take people's money at the register, they have lost far more than that investment.

From CVS's perspective, though, they see this as a long-shot (now, maybe not when it was first concocted) to get rid of an operating expense equalling about 2% of revenues (assuming most customers pay with credit cards at a convenience store) or $700k per quarter, which would boost their quarterly bottom-line net income ($1.246M last quarter) by more than 50%. Which, of course, is huge. So, you can see their incentive. It is just a really bad bet to make, and clearly anti-consumer, so there is no reason for us, the folks with the money they want, to go along.
Click to expand...

So, will they no longer accept credit cards? That's the only way I see this paying off at all. Let's face it, most people will not use this CurrentC system, so unless they force the issue by banning credit cards, this is a big loss for them.
 
jettredmont said:
Funny thing is, those companies (CVS, Rite-Aid, Walmart, etc) are going to lose a lot more than $500k in profits over those three years. CVS made $34.6M in revenue, of which over $6M was profit, in just the last quarter. Over three years, that translates to $72M (if all quarters were like the one ending in June 2014, which is probably low-balling it). That $500k is just 1/144th of their profits. That is, if they lose 1% of sales due to refusing to take people's money at the register, they have lost far more than that investment.

From CVS's perspective, though, they see this as a long-shot (now, maybe not when it was first concocted) to get rid of an operating expense equalling about 2% of revenues (assuming most customers pay with credit cards at a convenience store) or $700k per quarter, which would boost their quarterly bottom-line net income ($1.246M last quarter) by more than 50%. Which, of course, is huge. So, you can see their incentive. It is just a really bad bet to make, and clearly anti-consumer, so there is no reason for us, the folks with the money they want, to go along.
Click to expand...

Everywhere you have written M should read B. It's billions, not millions.
 
Why would anyone want to use this? I'm not sold on :apple:pay or google wallet, but those at least seem to have the same or less hassle as swiping a credit card, and a benefit of being slightly more secure. CurrentC on the other hand seems far more complicated, so I don't see why someone would use this over a credit or debit card. And if the stores tried to force it by not taking credit cards it would be about the same inconvenience to stop by the bank on the way to the store and get cash, plus it would be more secure than giving them all the information a hacker needs to steal your identity.
 
jettredmont said:
Funny thing is, those companies (CVS, Rite-Aid, Walmart, etc) are going to lose a lot more than $500k in profits over those three years. CVS made $34.6M in revenue, of which over $6M was profit, in just the last quarter. Over three years, that translates to $72M (if all quarters were like the one ending in June 2014, which is probably low-balling it). That $500k is just 1/144th of their profits. That is, if they lose 1% of sales due to refusing to take people's money at the register, they have lost far more than that investment.
Click to expand...

I believe you are off by a factor of 1,000-- that should be $34.6B. Etc.
 
SuperMatt said:
So, will they no longer accept credit cards? That's the only way I see this paying off at all. Let's face it, most people will not use this CurrentC system, so unless they force the issue by banning credit cards, this is a big loss for them.
Click to expand...

Absolutely, I forgot to mention that that payoff for CVS is proportional to the number of people they can dupe into buying into this designed-to-be-insecure system. If they could convince everyone to use it instead of a credit card, they would boost their operating income by more than 50%.

The more likely scenario IMHO is that fewer people shop there (maybe 5% drop-off in sales short-term, increasing if NFC catches on) and very few are duped into CurrentC. They make about 3.6% net income off sales (that is, for every $10 in condoms they sell, they make 36 cents) and as it stands card processing fees would be 2% in sales, which basically comes out to them needing about twice as many people top stop paying with credit cards as stop shopping there altogether. Roughly, if they have a 5% drop in sales they would need to make up for that by about 10% of the remaining customers switching to CurrentC to remain steady income-wise, a goal I simply can not see them mustering. This is of course assuming that CurrentC does not impose its own unique set of costs on the chain.
 
Self Interest

Many of you seem to have forgotten the first rule of capitalism and business. These executives are thinking about themselves and to a lesser extent, their stockholders. They are doing things that they believe will increase their profit. They don't care about customer convenience. Its all about putting the most amount of money into their pockets.
 
Backwards

An obvious step backwards for these companies. Them saving money on fees or not, I never understand a business taking away a functioning system for people to give them money.
 
avanpelt said:
CurrentC was doomed to fail from the start. However, they must have one hell of a marketing team if they were able to convince dozens of merchants to put up 500k years in advance of the system going live.

There's no way this system could've been successful. Just look at the steps required:

Unlock your phone
Find the CurrentC app
Open the CurrentC app
Enter the app passcode
Line up the camera with the QR code

Even before Apple Pay came along, that's still too many steps for most people to bother with it. And, if anything in that list doesn't happen with fluidity, what's the customer going to do? Say "screw it" and pull out plastic which totally defeats the purpose of having the CurrentC system in the first place. Those merchants that backed this were sold a bag of worthless goods, to be sure.

What a huge slap in the face Apple Pay is to CurrentC and the MCX. Think about it...CurrentC only uses ACH so you'd think they'd be all about getting bank partnerships. However, I don't see any mention of any such partnerships on the MCX/CurrentC site. Meanwhile, Apple Pay has only been announced for six weeks and Apple already has over 500 banks in the U.S. clammering to partner with them.

CurrentC is toast. They shouldn't have taken over two years to get their product to market. Not that Apple Pay still wouldn't have decimated them; but now they have absolutely zero chance of being successful.
Click to expand...

Heck, google wallet has far fewer steps as well (but more than apple pay).
 
mrkramer said:
Why would anyone want to use this? I'm not sold on :apple:pay or google wallet, but those at least seem to have the same or less hassle as swiping a credit card, and a benefit of being slightly more secure. CurrentC on the other hand seems far more complicated, so I don't see why someone would use this over a credit or debit card. And if the stores tried to force it by not taking credit cards it would be about the same inconvenience to stop by the bank on the way to the store and get cash, plus it would be more secure than giving them all the information a hacker needs to steal your identity.
Click to expand...

Because it's designed to be linked into their loyalty programs, offering discounts and coupons. The problem I see is the platform relies too much on customer loyalty and will end up alienating more customers that have no interest in the loyalty program.
 
The half million that these stupid retailers threw at this moronic system will be nothing compared to how much they will lose when the boycotts against their stores take traction. Time to cut your losses and run, not double down...
 
Fair is Fair

Is CurrentC is requiring Merchants to block other companies payment system Apple and Google should block their app from there devices... Fair is Fair
 
unobtainium said:
It's not. It just saves the retailers 2% on transaction fees. They forgot to provide any incentive for customers to use it. Actually, by storing sensitive info in the cloud, they've provided a disincentive.
Click to expand...

Then why not offer the consumer a 2% discount for paying cash (or debit)? Cut out the middle guy.
 
jettredmont said:
This is of course assuming that CurrentC does not impose its own unique set of costs on the chain.
Click to expand...

It's a pretty unrealistic assumption. I'm also unsure about how they expect to handle frauds and consumers contesting transactions which tends to be one of the biggest costs.
 
appleii.c said:
Then why not offer the consumer a 2% discount for paying cash (or debit)? Cut out the middle guy.
Click to expand...

This!

Pass along the savings to the customer, raise the prices for everyone using a CC. Raise the price even more for Apple pay.

This new payment method is fantastic if you dont want to use a CC. Absolutely terrible if you do.
 
andy9l said:
As I went underground at London Waterloo this morning and saw thousands of people pay via NFC using their debit, credit and Oyster cards, I couldn't help but think what a shame it is that Apple didn't start here, in the UK, where NFC has been the norm for so long - especially in London.

I'm sure there's a valid reason - I trust the decisions of the most valuable company in the world over my own naive view. But it does seem wasted in the States.
Click to expand...

I believe they said they want to expand outside the U.S. as quickly as possible (described as months not years, but we'll see)...guessing Canada and the U.K. will be on the initial list.
 
Yikes!

This doesn't seem very thought out. QR Codes? really? How does this in any way provide any form of security. Since there is no financial institution behind this, who do you go to when fraud is committed?

And they are just not trying to compete against Apple but also again MasterCard, Visa and Amex?! Not to mention the banks that have cards with each of those companies as well. Oh man, are they in for it.
 
Tubamajuba said:
For the most part, you are correct.

But take a look at the CVS thread that blew up this weekend on the front page. It's full of people that were harassing those who knew how bad MCX and CurrentC was. Time after time, I and many others tried to explain the situation to them, and they refused to listen. All they could do is make fun of us because in their eyes, it was all about fanboys wanting to use Apple Pay.

I sure hope they see how wrong they were and how foolish they look.
Click to expand...

Never. :p

It seems to be an American thing to tell people "live with it", "get over it" and so on. Where I grew up, learning how to stand up to authorities and to those trying to be authorities was something you learned at school, as essential part of your education. So not complaining about something that I don't like is totally alien to me.
 
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