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Apple Pay Competitor CurrentC Detailed as Convoluted System With Minimal Consumer Benefit
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CurrentC reminds me of CAPTCHA... it's what happens when you transfer the burden of solving business problems over to your customer instead of putting the customer first. Guess what Walmart... your CC processing fees are NOT my problem. The customer get's no benefit our of CurrentC and it can only be used in very few places. NFC on the other hand (outside of the USA) is quick and easy and everywhere.
Well then be sarcastic, if you think it serves some purpose. The retailers who don't want to get on board with bank-friendly Apple Pay have a window of opportunity to establish a solution that works better for their purposes. If this is the system most of the retailers get behind then it won't matter whether Apple's solution is technically superior and more user-friendly.
I don't think the 2-3% is the main point here... The greater piece of cake will be the data mining and advertising...
But, I think they can still do that... Here in India we have loyalty cards for every chain of stores... So when you go shopping just give your loyalty card along with your debit/credit card or cash (we get extra reward points on cash purchases) and all your loyalty points get deposited into that... When you think you have enough just redeem them... Or redeem at the end of the year when your loyalty points are about to expire...
Many chains have even come together and developed a common loyalty programme where you can accrue and use the loyalty points at any of the member stores...
These guys didn't even need this mess...
But if it isn't user friendly there will be no users. And this really isn't user friendly at all.
The QR code went straight out of the womb into the grave.
I have NO IDEA why companies still try to use them. They are ineffective, unsightly, and outdated in this coming age of NFC and other wireless, more passive technologies.
Or a 100 times more secure... Who cares if all your data gets mined/hacked (especially considering some of the members have been hacked previously)... It's not the end of the world you know... We can always start afresh and earn our hard earned money again...
Oh and retailers do tend to include that cost in the MRP... Also when they do the MCX thing and save the 3% they aren't going to pass it to the consumer...
Yes, to many programmers (some coders seem to just like pounding code to spec no matter how idiotic the specs are, they don't know, they don't care) and not enough people seemingly loving to actually provide a usable product or system.
That's not new, I've been a systems architect of large systems since the early 1990s and I've dealt with bean counters and programmers with the same "get it out there" and make it pretty and cheap mentality (who care if it really helps the user at all, it hits all the checkmarks and you got your money).
All software but the most mission critical ones were abysmal in usability and quality and there seemed to be NO OPTIONS in the PC world. At that time, I wasn'T dealing with Macs, I got my solid systems (but clunky UI) on the Unix side (Suns were much better than SCO for UI). I mostly hated the UI of all systems so much that I stayed mostly in Console mode till the 2000s
.Thank god, some of the systems I worked on had significant liability issues if they didn't work right that I was able to reign these efficiency freaks in!!
The banks and credit cards have already won. The only solution that is more convenient than the plastic swipe is an NFC solution such as Apple Pay. Any other solution that is more complicated than the swipe is doomed to fail and the current banks couldn't care less since they're already in the driver's seat. Eventually, NFC will be the natural evolution from the swipe and it doesn't matter how long it takes.
Yes, to many programmers (some coders seem to just like pounding code to spec no matter how idiotic the specs are, they don't know, they don't care) and not enough people seemingly loving to actually provide a usable product or system.
That's not new, I've been a systems architect of large systems since the early 1990s and I've dealt with bean counters and programmers with the same "get it out there" and make it pretty and cheap mentality (who care if it really helps the user at all, it hits all the checkmarks and you got your money).
All software but the most mission critical ones were abysmal in usability and quality and there seemed to be NO OPTIONS in the PC world. At that time, I wasn'T dealing with Macs, I got my solid systems (but clunky UI) on the Unix side (Suns were much better than SCO for UI). I mostly hated the UI of all systems so much that I stayed mostly in Console mode till the 2000s
Thank god, some of the systems I worked on had significant liability issues if they didn't work right that I was able to reign these efficiency freaks in!!
So in common MR language most programmers are like most phone companies who like to stuff specs in their phones regardless of their usability...?
Ha, what little backwater hamlet do you live in?
(Totally not trying to start a Hatfield and McCoy feud, here.
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The main reason I bring up the scenario of someone around you, is to point out that the target phone cannot always be remotely blocked to prevent access.
Moreover, the technique does not require expertise or a lot of equipment. The method itself has been well known since at least 2002. I suspect that people who think it's difficult, have never made hobbyist circuit boards, like hundreds of thousands of us have.
I agree it's not worth worrying about for most people, because few people carry info on their phones that someone would seriously want to target. For those that do, fingerprints would be no security in a targeted scenario.
Ex-MI. You worry about things like this.
It already is that way... Other forms of nfc and online purchases attract a "card not present" fee of around 3%.. But, the credit card companies are so satisfied with the security of Apple pay that even though it is a nfc transaction it will attract the normal swipe or "card present" fee of around 1.7-1.8% IIRC... That will be true even for online transactions I think... So win-win for all parties involved...
I'm sure someone will point out before this post, but again you are wrong. Apple Pay purchases can function perfectly without any data signal, Wifi or Cell...
Also, finding and launching are not the same single step. They are two steps.
First I need to navigate to the page/folder (or use spotlight to find the app). That might take 1-5 seconds depending on how many apps I have on my 64GB phone. Then I have to launch and wait for the app to open, which might take another 1-5 seconds...
Neither of these steps is required for Apple Pay. And I don't have to wait for any data connection.
Other NFC wallets are also Card Present. That's not unique to Apple Pay.
However, Apple Pay is Card Not Present for in-app purchases.
Uh, the same way the POS system knows if I use a credit card. This has nothing to do with my phone's data signal.
Wow, not just more secure, it's 100 times more secure!
Look, you just plain miss the point. It's a lot less about what is better for us than what the retailers want for themselves. We are not actually deciding, they are.
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I don't see the retailers conceding that the banks have already won. If they believed that, then this consortium to deal the banks out of the payment system would not exist. We may want Apple Pay to succeed, but it isn't really up to us.
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About ten times already, thanks. For the point, read further up.
You're missing the point my friend... We are the consumers... And where I got my education they taught us to always put the consumer first... Why...? Because he is ****ing paying you the monies... But anyways... This is some twisted world we live in...
Customer bank account, social security number and driver license all there for the next big hack to grab them all. NFW.
I'd be really surprised to find that Walmart spends as much handling cash as they do on swipe fees. Their swipe fee payments must run into the billions of dollars. Unless they've got 100,000 employees who do nothing but count cash all day.
Presumably, if Walmart were to accept ApplePay, there's a fee for them to pay. They obviously don't want to. Walmart is rather well known for not paying for anything it doesn't want to pay for.
Also, how many of Walmart's customers have ApplePay?
As a Canadian where NFC terminals are everywhere, chip and pin is required and almost every credit card is capable of contactless payments, it find this extremely amusing.
So to setup currentC the first time, you have to - download the app, give them your SSN, birthday, direct debit banking information. Huge problem with that is 1. direct debit to your accounts without the protection of a cc for fraud protection, etc, 2. privacy of your SSN, DL, and to a lesser extent, birthday, 3. The security of their 'cloud'
From those images posted about the payment process it gets even worse -
Unlock phone, launch app, capture barcode displayed at the till (remember old phones can take 5-7 seconds to launch the camera), authorize payment via password/pin, display authorization barcode for the till to scan, done.
Yikes.
NFC and Chip&Pin are global standards. It is amazing to see to what lengths american banks are going to to avoid taking it up.
So to setup currentC the first time, you have to - download the app, give them your SSN, birthday, direct debit banking information. Huge problem with that is 1. direct debit to your accounts without the protection of a cc for fraud protection, etc, 2. privacy of your SSN, DL, and to a lesser extent, birthday, 3. The security of their 'cloud'
From those images posted about the payment process it gets even worse -
Unlock phone, launch app, capture barcode displayed at the till (remember old phones can take 5-7 seconds to launch the camera), authorize payment via password/pin, display authorization barcode for the till to scan, done.
Yikes.
NFC and Chip&Pin are global standards. It is amazing to see to what lengths american banks are going to to avoid taking it up.
I'm saying it doesn't matter what the retailers do. They've already lost. The consortium will NOT deal the banks out...all they will do is hawk their poor homegrown solution that is less secure, less convenient, and less beneficial to consumers. The banks are already in every POS machine in the retailers and the retailers are COMPLETELY powerless in removing Visa/MC's presence (not a single one will be able to do it). America is already in debt, and will continue to rely on the banks to keep their current lifestyle. Its a completely futile effort
If blocked, CurrentC could have a web/HTML5 app to produce the QR code on users phones...
But regardless, as I stated in one of the other threads, it won't matter. CurrentC has no chance for success. It will be dead before arrival.