Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

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

StyxMaker said:
I've only been in Walmart stores a few times, when I've been with someone else who wanted to buy something there, and I've always found it to be a very unpleasant experience.
Click to expand...

That's been my experience too. I know people who love it there. In all fairness I am not a shopper. When I need something I go and buy it. Walking around looking at things I don't need has never appealed.

I love to look at cars. Not an incidental purchase.
 
How are they legally going to require an SSN?

I'm sure it's probably some weird lawyer speak to prove it fits the criteria but I'm pretty sure you are not allowed to require an SSN for something unless they are applying with credit for you (and since they are requiring you take out funds from your bank you aren't getting credit with them as they aren't loaning you any money) or you are starting a job for them.

Anyways, anyone who is smart will balk at them asking for an SSN. They have no reason to need it, they are going to put it somewhere where it is very appealing to hackers, and if you think your credit card getting stolen is a hassle... try getting your ID stolen. It's not as easy as just calling and refuting, in the end you really gotta hire a lawyer and at the very least threaten to sue the credit companies (not credit card companies, credit companies: Equifax, Experion, and Transunion) and make it a true threat, not just empty. Because they have no motivation to give one sh** if your credit is inaccurate, they make money off of it either way (They don't even need your permission to be selling your info and making money off of it). The only motivation they have is fear of you sueing them. When it comes to ID theft, you are pretty much guilty until proven innocent. Hell, the CCs are super easy to give out CCs to anyone applying with your SSN long as your credit is good.

Sadly, I know this from experience (Bank of America told me when I told them that I refuted the card itself, not the charges, that they knew something was fishy about the application... so do you think they refused it? If you said yes I laugh at your naivety. They gave the person a card and let him transfer 15k of credit to it! Then they closed it).

(and yeah, check your credit often. You really have no control over some one getting your SSN, you can make it be in less places so it's less likely but since you need it for employment and credit applications it is going to be somewhere some one else can get it... if nothing else, the social security office which yes, they have had some one who worked there steal IDs cause they had access).
 
So what happens if Apple rejects the app? It seems like they have an aggressive approach against Apple Pay but will need to put an app in Apple's app store.
 
U.S. only technology that provides no benefits to the consumer and rejects worldwide payment standard… wow :rolleyes:

Plus with promotion and costs to introduce support for this - they will spend more than 3% they’d possibly save. AND they will still have to support normal credit cards (even if without NFC), so they cannot ditch traditional payment infrastructure and its costs. What a mess!
 
??

I am not so clear on this. What happens if there in another Target or Home Depot style breach? If hackers get bank account, what stops them from draining the whole account?
 
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...

Wow, that's pathetic. I can't wait to see a Youtube Video comparing the two in action. :p
 
zaphon said:
Which deducts from an account that you load with Money. It doesn't directly debit from my checking account (I deposit into mine with a Credit Card).
Click to expand...

I use cash to refill SBUX card. Not comfortable linking with a cc.
 
dodoei said:
QR code transaction has been on in China and other Asian countries for quite a while, and are very popular. Companies like Alibaba are even testing out scanning personalized objects/patterns like a gestures, tattoos, face, your pets... to make payments... and here in the USA, because it's a competitor to Apple, it's a bad thing...
Click to expand...


Didnt I read, just recently, China is moving away from payments using QR scanning because of hackers?
 
Larry-Bloom said:
Is CurrentC is requiring Merchants to block other companies payment system Apple and Google should block their app from there devices... Fair is Fair
Click to expand...


I wonder if that is the best approach? If Apple removes CurrentC app it will be all over the news giving parity to this weird payment method. Maybe it will be more effective to let CurrentC die on it's own.

I appreciate your passion for Apple Pay and disappointment at Rite Aid and CVS blocking the service. Just wonder if in the long run it's the most effective approach?
 
MacCruiskeen said:
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?
Click to expand...
At least one less today.
 
kdarling said:
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.
Click to expand...

IF you something you have is worth enough to be targetted, they probably bugged, put trackers, intercept, film, everything. They don't even need to access the phone, they already know what you put in there. The phone may be secure, but the rest of your life probably isn't ;-).

To get into your phone, they do need a clean print and they need to know the finger you used to get into the phone. After 5 tries you phone is locked and if you put a long pin in, it's going to be a long slog to get something out of it (your phone data is encrypted). Supposed you could get into a clean room and try accessing the keys from the chip itself. Only a reknown terrorist would be worth that bother and even then it wouldn't be quick and it would be expensive.

You could also just use your phone as a decoy and simply use a Raspberry PI connected to an encrypted USB key as you way to transport your info :)

Anyway, the best way to get info, is to get info before its put in a secure area, or when it is taken out of a secure area. Takes resource for this much surveillance, but if your the US government, you certainly can do it.

----------
doelcm82 said:
At least one less today.
Click to expand...

Handling cash depends on how much cash they handle. The cash they handle at the register (opening it, giving the change, waiting for people to find the correct change) and everywhere must be included (including security). I'd be surprised if this is less than 1% of all their revenues. It is not just the handling of the cash behind the scenes.

The problem is if people that were using cash start using NFC. People using credit card will pay the same fee, so it is not changing much from the current situation.
 
This is already dead in the water and will be DOA on arrival... if it makes it that far...
 
jclardy said:
So...in short:

Apple Pay:
1. Hold phone to reader
2. Scan fingerprint

CurrentC:
1. Unlock phone
2. Find CurrentC app
3. Launch CurrentC app
4. Hope you have adequate signal in concrete walls of the store
5. Hold phone up to scanner

Also CurrentC is essentially a debit transaction. So no rewards, reduced fraud protection and increased likelihood of getting actual cash stolen from your bank account (Compared to a credit card being stored locally with Apple Pay.)
Click to expand...

I hope buy the summer of 2015 CurrentC contracts are up. Cant believe Meijer would even team up with Walmart. Some of there biggest competition. Fools.
 
Just based on the complex process described in the first message of this article, I can officially conclude that CurrentC is officially a dead duck. :)

Let's consider what is wrong with CurrentC:

1. You have to scan a QR code image with your cellphone, which has the issues of how well the image sensor on the cellphone can read the QR code image displayed on the point-of-sale terminal and the real possibility of someone hacking that QR code (Alibaba's Alipay was shut down by the Chinese government because it was too easy to hack the QR code).

2. You have to provide a Driver License number, Social Security number and banking account number to MCX to store on their supposedly "secure" servers (good luck given all the data breaches at point-of-sale terminals lately).

3. The whole payment process is needlessly complicated compared to NFC payments by Apple Pay, Google Wallet or Softcard.

Given all these issues, what will kill CurrentC could come down to two parts:

1. Banks and credit unions may forbid the linking of savings and checking accounts to the CurrentC system for security reasons.

2. Verifone--the largest manufacturer of point-of-sale terminals in the USA (they already make EMV-compatible terminals and terminals with NFC subsystems)--may very likely not build CurrentC point-of-sale terminals.

I personally believe behind the scenes, both CVS and Rite-Aid are figuring out how to buy out their stake in MCX to avoid further PR and eventually financial damage to the companies. And several companies that are publicly supporting CurrentC now may be reassessing their stake in MCX, too.
 
FriednTested said:
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...
Click to expand...

Good luck with that.

----------
apprunner said:
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 :eek:
Click to expand...

And good luck with that too.
 
If this CurrrenC system requires a United-States-specific piece of information (the Social Security Number), should we assume that CurrenC has no plans for broader deployment in the near future?

Good riddance, by the sounds of it.

I've tried to search through this thread but please forgive me if I missed it...
 
Maybe not a big issue in Minnesota where the trial is, but thinking about NY, LA & other big cities, what about the hundreds of thousands of international tourists, business vistors, short-term residents & so on who are NOT US citizens & do not have either a US Social Security Number or US drivers license?

Is it the policy of all these stores to discriminate against everyone who is not an American, & refuse to allow them to pay with their phone?
 
FriednTested said:
Reading your post history on this thread you come across as some one with little or no understanding of the current topic... So it's best I don't feed... Good bye...
Click to expand...

Ha. Nice try. You are so right, these companies aren't working for their own benefit. Repeat until everyone believes it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back