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

[tmilowski]

Going backwards...

This solution is going backwards... As almost entire world (I mean the world outside of the USA) accepts the card payments using the NFC standard the MCX here in America wants to introduce another, yet propriatery solution of payment. This is ridiculous... I hope all interested parties will wake up and walk away...

 

[Larryjay]

They should be ashamed of themselves.

 

[mazz0]

The banks are the ones that created the credit card companies and eventually spun them off. They wanted a unified payment mechanism and the entire POS infrastructure is geared toward the credit cards now. They can't be so easily displaced as their networks provide security and an entire infrastructure that can handle the transaction volume. I believe the banks want this status quo in place for the foreseeable future.

That's what it comes down to really isn't it - the infrastructure. The question is, is it efficient having the NFC infrastructure as well as the card provider infrastructure, couldn't the former, in a new form, replace the latter, just like you can use PayPal etc without going through a card company. From a position of complete ignorance of the details, my instinctive response is that yes, it totally could. Apple could've done it themselves if they'd wanted, but I don't see what would have been in it for them.

 

[eltonic]

Pretty sure the retailers who've concocted this CurrentC garbage don't care about how it works. For all they care, they can hire some kid from high school to develop it. Don't assume that it's going to work seamlessly or even work at all. It's just a placeholder to thrwart any NFC efforts.

Doesn't everyone use credit cards for most of their purchases anyways?
I mean anything above 100 dollars, I automatically use credit card. I don't like carrying a wadload of cash around town.

I'm interested to see what percentage of all purchases from any one of the retailers are charged via credit card anyway.

 

[samcraig]

CVS & RiteAid must have lost way more than $500k by now not allowing customers paying thorough ApplePay! It would be much cheaper for them to ditch that stupid 3 year contract than losing business altogether. By 2019, at least 50% (if not 100%) of the USA population will start using ApplePay and other modes of NFC payments. Within a week after the launch of Apple pay, if the response is so strong, it's no brainer to imagine the downfall of the companies refusing ApplePay on purpose.

I love to shop at CVS & RiteAid
OR used to .��

So many assumptions and facts out of the air.

Please show any indication of loss in sales directly attributed to lack of ability to use Apple Pay. And by that I mean - complete loss of sales due to Apple Pay.

After that - can you find me a stat from an analyst or research organization that hypothesizes NFC adoption for 2019 being anywhere between 50%-100% (LOL)

Quite the bit of hyperbole and "retail is doomed for not allowing Apple Pay" there...

 

[caesarp]

Doesn't everyone use credit cards for most of their purchases anyways?
I mean anything above 100 dollars, I automatically use credit card. I don't like carrying a wadload of cash around town.

.

Not according to the CurrentC folks:

Customers who shop for big-screen TVs at Best Buy, lawn furniture at Walmart, new clothes at Target and prescriptions at CVS and Rite-Aid generally do not shop with cards issued by the big 3 – Visa, MasterCard and American Express, he says. Some 75% of all purchases at the 50 MCX merchants are done via cash, debit cards, gift and store issued private label credit cards. "We believe paying through checking will not be the most prevalent way to pay."
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http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/...t-wont-demand-social-and-drivers-id/18374195/

But if that's true, then why are they so concerned about the interchange fees? CurrentC is looking to go after a different type of shopper I think. They are going after those who already don't use the big 3 credit cards that much, but tend to use store issued credit cards. I'm not sure why that can't co-exist with Apple Pay and Google Wallet though?

 

[jms969]

With all the current information that is coming out now on these pay systems, I'm beginning to wonder about PayPal and how it works.

I don't keep any money in a PayPal account per se, but when I do use PayPal to purchase something, the amount is just taken out of my checking account.

This has my privacy radar going up now.

You can do what I did and open a separate checking account specifically for paypal etc and put only the minimum amount of funds in the account to cover the transactions I will be making...