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Apple Pay Launching in Canada With American Express on November 17
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I can understand why most Canadians are not excited about amex apple pay since its not prevalent here. I use Amex as my primary card but more often than not many retailers don't accept them. I would say only 4 out of 10 places will accept Amex here in Toronto. If you visit indy restaurants, cafes, small retail shops, etc then Amex apple pay will not be useful to you.
Still excited though
Still excited though
My Amex in Canada is quiet awesome. I also have a MasterCard and never received any perks :S.
This year alone with my amex:
Got $30 statement credit at Milestones
Got $20 statement credit at Esso
Got $30 statement credit at Lowes
Im sure I can find more if I take a look. Also taken advantage of the early screenings they have sometimes.
That reminds me of the sad story about the guy using his Find My iPhone app and trace down his iPhone but ended up getting kill by the thieves..
Consider getting an Amex charge card rather than a credit card. With a charge card, the full balance is due each month and you don't keep a rolling balance or pay any interest.
(Traditionally, all Amex cards were charge cards. It was only in the 1990s or so that Amex started marketing credit cards as well to compete with Visa and MasterCard...)
While reading about Apple Pay in Canada I found this, " In Canada, if you use a card other than American Express and your purchase is more than $100, you might not be able to use Apple Pay at some merchants."
Looks like Visa and/or MC will be onboard soon for non Amex users.
Looks like Visa and/or MC will be onboard soon for non Amex users.
MasterCard is king in acceptance everywhere worldwide.
It's not even just AMEX cards, any card with an annual fee usually comes with perks and extra rewards to negate the annual fee and then some.
In Canada with the AMEX Simply Cash Preferred card, you pay a $79 annual fee, but get 5% back in the first six months (up to $400 in rewards), and then 1.5% back on everything else, no fee on additional cards, and their superior customer service.
Compare that to the Signature RBC Rewards Visa, which has a $39 annual fee, 1% on everything, and $0 for additional cards.
If you use your card enough you can get your annual fee back.
$30,000 spent x 1.5% back = $450
$30,000 spent x 1.0% back = $300
And that's not including the 5% back you get for the first 6 months. If you use your card regularly, AMEX is worth it.
I dunno. The gold rewards Amex is probably a better card than the MasterCard world elite.
- Rogers Platinum MasterCard: 1.75% cashback, no fee
- MBNA Rewards World Elite MasterCard: 2% cashback, $89 annual fee, 1st year free and $100 for signing up
- BMO Cashback World Elite MasterCard: 1.75% cashback, $120 annual fee, 1st year free
- PC Financial World Elite MasterCard: 3% back at Loblaw/Shoppers/T&T/No Frills/Superstore, 1% everything else, with all the World Elite MasterCard benefits, NO ANNUAL FEE
- Tangerine MasterCard: 2% back on categories of your choosing, 1% everything else, NO ANNUAL FEE
Amex is not that competitive. For the Simply Cash preferred, to make up for that $79 annual fee, the break even point in spending is:
- compared to the 1.25% no fee version, you are better off after $31,600/year in spending JUST TO OFFSET the fee
- compared to the credit cards I have listed above, Amex just can't compete
The problem is do you have data to back up that Apple Pay would dramatically increase the number? If Apple Pay does little impact on how people using their cards, then why would bank accept Apple Pay. As long as none of the bank move, there is little incentive for others to move.
To be honest, I see little benefit from Apple Pay beside security issue l. So far, i haven't had any fraud transactions yet. And most likely, I would still have to carry my wallet all the time, so I don't really care about Apple Pay that much
Biggest benefit is to consolidate all the plastics electronically. Just convenience.
Then why would CIBC create it's own NFC payment app for certain Android phones and Blackberry? If it has little impact then why bother putting effort into creating your own? The banks know the numbers and they know how popular tapping a terminal is with your card. Creating an app just shows how they probably know how popular using your phone may become.
If it there is wide sprade need for mobile payment why mobile payment hasn't take off yet? People simplely does not care if they pay by tapping their card or phone. To most people it is the same. I know few people working at CIBC and TD, none of their employees seems care about their perspective payment system.
Most people out there do not even know Apple Pay and most of them doesn't really care either.
Secondly, for mobile payment to come off, there must be a standard. Apple Pay only work with iPhone, Android Pay only works with select Android phone, Samsung Pay only works with Samsug phone. It is simply pain in the butt for banks and retailers to support every payment system. There is need a payment system that works cross board and supported by majority manufactuers. Otherwise, I do not see how mobile payment can take off.
EDIT: It seems that CIBC and TD's mobile payment solution is provided by Surtap...So yeah, banks did not spend tons of money for their mobile payment
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No. Until every single store suports NFC payment, you still have to carry plastic cards and your wallet. You still have to carry your membership cards, student card, drivers license. People still need carry varity of cards, so what the differences? It is not like all the sudden you don't need plastic card. If I still need to carry it, how does Apple Pay consolidate all the plastics electronically?
Those all use the same standard that the contactless cards do. It's not possible for a store to only support one without supporting the rest.
True...that they all use NFC payment, but each payments are slightly different. Take Apple Pay and CurrentC, these are two completely different solution. Do you expect such fragmented mass is going to help mobile payment?
Second, Google, Apple, Samsung and all these mobile payment solution need support from all major banks. Do you think banks gonna support everyone? If bank bjng selective, then some population gonna be left out, this certainly does not help mobile payment strive.
All major company need creat a entity that handles mobile payment, so that everyone can use mobile payment. For plastic card, there is no technical barrier, every one can use a plastic card, no one is left out. Mobile Payment is diffetent, consumer need to choose which mobile payment solution, they need choose devices support that solution and banks need be on board. It is way to complicated for ordinary users.
No one's going to use CurrentC though. It's really a way to market NFC payments for a specific set of devices (iPhone/Apple Watch for Apple Pay, Android devices for Android Pay or Samsung phones for Samsung Pay. Besides, Google and Samsung use tokenization too.
No, because I don't want or need an Apple Watch. You're not streamlining the payment process if you need two additional devices to replace a credit card.
There is a standard, NFC. Both Android and iOS use the NFC capabilities of their phone to communicate with the terminals. The differences lie in the security of each. A terminal set up to use NFC will take payment via Apple Pay or Android Pay that's why CVS and Rite Aid, which did not support Apple Pay, turned off their NFC terminals so Apple Pay customers couldn't use them. In Canada terminals have Visa pay wave or MC tap & go and both use NFC. There are vending machines that accept payment through NFC and there is a video of a university student using his iPhone to purchase a drink from a vending machine.