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You can use Apple Pay or any other contactless technology at 99.9% of payment terminals in Australia. Essentially all stores, restaurants and cafes. Even trains and busses. How contactless payments are still niche in the US is crazy to think.

How are your payment terminals fixed for doing Apple Pay properly, though? In the UK we have thousands of terminals that work with any old contactless card (or Apple Pay) but they are limited to ÂŁ30 transactions. It's only with modern terminal equipment that you can pay for something worth more than ÂŁ30 (like a tank of fuel) with Apple Pay. Thankfully, more and more places are coming on board and permitting high value purchases.
 
Well, thats odd. I have always been wondering why the US is virtually 10 years behind other countries in this regard.

Short version of why the US didn't move to chip readers sooner is it didn't have much reason to do so. The telecommunications infrastructure allowed for live authentication vs batch processing, so there wasn't the incentive to implement chip+PIN to reduce fraud as there was elsewhere.

More info here: https://www.zdnet.com/article/emv-understanding-why-the-us-migration-didnt-happen-sooner/
 
I just don't understand how they come up with the 70% of retailers statistic. I live in Phoenix, AZ (USA), one of the largest cities in the country... Apple Pay is nowhere to be found, in comparison to places that don't have it. Yeah, McDonald's, Whole Foods, Starbucks, random other coffee shops. That's about it. No gas stations, no grocery stores (beyond Whole Foods), no Walmart, no Target, very few stores in malls.

Thank god BevMo accepts Apple Pay, or I would have to move!

I live in the Phoenix area too and found the same. It isn't like I can stop carrying a CC or Debit Card since so many places don't accept it. So it gets to the point of why bother using it. Even a couple times I've used it I was still required to sign something!

Another note I was in the Apple Store a couple of weeks ago and needed to get the battery replaced on my 13" MBP. They couldn't take Apple Pay for it! They said they could take it when I picked it up, but since I wanted it shipped to me (since I live 40 minutes away from the closest Apple Store) that I would have to use a CC. I'm assuming it is because they don't charge until they ship and can't do a delayed charge yet.
 
Good to hear, love using Apple Pay and the Apple Card. I thought everyone had said Google Pay and Samsung Pay was much more popular though?
 
How are your payment terminals fixed for doing Apple Pay properly, though? In the UK we have thousands of terminals that work with any old contactless card (or Apple Pay) but they are limited to ÂŁ30 transactions. It's only with modern terminal equipment that you can pay for something worth more than ÂŁ30 (like a tank of fuel) with Apple Pay. Thankfully, more and more places are coming on board and permitting high value purchases.

Contactless card transactions in Australia are limited to $100aud. However, if you pay for something above that amount, you can still make a contactless transaction, you just need to enter your pin as well.

To be honest, most of my Apple Pay transactions are for incidentals, so I can’t remember if the $100 limit applies to them.
 
I had no idea that the Starbucks payment app was that popular. I have the gold card, but never use the app. I guess I have to get with the times...

Tangent: Does Starbucks accept Apple Pay?
 
I use ApplePay regularly at Sprouts, TraderJoes, WholeFoods, DicksSportingGoods, AcademySports, BassPro/Cabelas, QuikTrip gas station (inside only though), Costco, a local independent grocery store, local liquor store, many other places.

Can't use it at Walmart, Publix, Kroger, Home Depot, Sams, or Lowes though.
Basically cannot use it at most gas stations (the most common place for CC theft/fraud) or most chain grocery stores (where most people shop for food almost daily) and almost all sit-down restaurants.

Most other stores that have contactless are places most people go infrequently. To be more than a novelty, being able to use it *everywhere* is what is necessary.

And the convenience is totally lost on those terminals that STILL require me to input my PIN. If my Apple Watch and iPhone are so secure, why do I need to enter a PIN also? Stupid systems...
 
I use ApplePay regularly at Sprouts, TraderJoes, WholeFoods, DicksSportingGoods, AcademySports, BassPro/Cabelas, QuikTrip gas station (inside only though), Costco, a local independent grocery store, local liquor store, many other places.

Can't use it at Walmart, Publix, Kroger, Home Depot, Sams, or Lowes though.

Someone told me Home Depot did now. *shrug*
 
I use Apple pay to reload my Starbucks balance 🤔

also, you can look up places that accept Apple Pay via Apple maps.

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Basically cannot use it at most gas stations (the most common place for CC theft/fraud) or most chain grocery stores (where most people shop for food almost daily) and almost all sit-down restaurants.

Most other stores that have contactless are places most people go infrequently. To be more than a novelty, being able to use it *everywhere* is what is necessary.

And the convenience is totally lost on those terminals that STILL require me to input my PIN. If my Apple Watch and iPhone are so secure, why do I need to enter a PIN also? Stupid systems...

most shells (at least in my area) have Apple Pay BUT I have to go inside. After a couple of times I don’t have to input Pin or zip code.

Good points though. It’s not as easy or flat out not available in the highest risk locations.
 
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What a horrible milestone. I want to use Apple Pay 100% of the time on my watch. I want to say good riddance to chip cards at a time when chip cards are absolutely slowing down all transactions in all stores.

But to this date, Apple Pay has still ever only worked for me correctly in Walgreens and airport newsstands. These are the only stores that don’t require a pin.

70% of the time I can’t even use it at all. I’d like to see some laws requiring all digital payments to be accepted whenever a store tries to do ANYthing related to digital payments or rewards programs.
I don’t understand how the nation that landed man on the moon hadn’t got contactless payments everywhere. Besides a few Asian places I visit that only take cash I only know of one car park which doesn’t use Apple pay here in Australia. Once NSW fully roll out the electronic drivers licence I won’t need a wallet
 
Well, thats odd. I have always been wondering why the US is virtually 10 years behind other countries in this regard. In Europe, the contactless payment was introduced several years ago. Actually, I had my first credit card with a chip instead of magnetic stripe some 10 years ago. In China for example, there is currently no need of POS terminals at all as virtually everything can be paid with WeChat.
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Well, small business just need to purchase a POS terminal that is not 10 years old. Not really expensive or difficult to implement.

Speaking from the industy -- We aren't virtually behind anything. We were the first country to launch contactless payments in 2004 while everyone else was trying to figure out the chip. So we had to deal with the tin-foil hats for the rest of you. About how people were going to steal your credit card from a mile away. Complaints to remove PayPass and PayWave from cards. We had a huge ramp up for about 5 years, then a slowing down (and even ripping out) for the next 5 years where the loud mouth minority got their way.

Then there's also the scale of what needs to be done. Card by card, store by store. There's 330 million Visa cards in the US... 771 million in the rest of the world combined. Mastercard is 231 vs 644. AmEx is 54 vs 60. That's nearly 50% of the whole pie that needs to be replaced... for a second time. And as of calendar close 2018, we were 50% done. Fueling the slow pace this time around is that as soon as its adopted, fraud responsibility falls on the merchant. Previously, someone uses a fake card, merchant gets paid the full amount; the credit card issuer eats the loss. Not anymore.

Anyway... Visa and Mastercard has mandating that all terminals must support contactless -- for example, 1 January 2020 the entire EU must support it or they'll charge merchants larger fees for using outdated terminals. In the US it'll be by market segment.

In relation to WeChat. Real-Time Payments are now a thing here. Banks are rolling it out now, first to corporates.
 
Exactly...I’d say 90% of my transactions are with Publix, Walmart, Target, and gas stations that all don’t accept Apple Pay. I’m conditioned to not even TRY at new stores.
Interesting how things change in different areas. We have Food Lion instead of Publix and Food Lion's been accepting Apple Pay for awhile now. Our local Targets do as well. As gas stations around here get their pumps replaced (to accept EMV before the Oct 2020 deadline) more and more are accepting NFC. Don't think Walmart ever will though. :)
 
Italy here: Apple Pay is all I use now. It works everywhere, flawlessly, and fast.

I used to have 4 credit cards in my wallet, now I keep just one just to be sure, but I don’t use it since 6 months.

Online, Apple Pay is my first choice of payment when available (not so much so far but increasingly so).
 
Most of our stores fall into several categories.

1. Old machines with no contactless.
2. Has contactless but isn’t turned on.
3. Has a proprietary payment system to lock out Apple (WalMart).
4. Who knows, so why embarrass yourself trying?

Yea, I had the same question, how it is so complicated in USA, why? Even in my not really technically advanced country it works like this:
If Shop has contactless POS station- you can pay with Apple Pay. Doesn't matter, what the retailer is, as long as they have contactless machine- you can use Apple Pay. And by 2020 all places, that have POS terminals will have to support contactless payments as well.
I get the "evil tracking" of customer habits so they could target special ads and offers etc, but in my place this is usually done by client card, that you swipe/beep before purchase and through that retailers spam your e-mail with discounts for rice and wine tastings.
 
We should expect Apple Pay to have more users since it is used to purchased virtually anything and to compare that to a system that is only used to purchase from one store is a little bit confusing for me.
That's the way it seems at first glance. But remember that until fairly recently, many retail outlets in the U.S. still didn't accommodate contactless payments, and many that did (like CVS) specifically banned Apple Pay. Finally, the technology is being widely adopted; there are fewer and fewer stores where I can't use Apple Pay now, which is a significant shift. Because of the sheer number of Apple devices out there, its use will probably continue to grow.
 
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You can use Apple Pay or any other contactless technology at 99.9% of payment terminals in Australia. Essentially all stores, restaurants and cafes. Even trains and busses. How contactless payments are still niche in the US is crazy to think.

Same in China, contactless payment are everywhere, I can’t believe the US is so behind in this field.
 
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How are your payment terminals fixed for doing Apple Pay properly, though? In the UK we have thousands of terminals that work with any old contactless card (or Apple Pay) but they are limited to ÂŁ30 transactions. It's only with modern terminal equipment that you can pay for something worth more than ÂŁ30 (like a tank of fuel) with Apple Pay. Thankfully, more and more places are coming on board and permitting high value purchases.

Here some cards are limited to $100 AUD. American Express for example does not have such limit via Apple Pay. I was under the impression that the limits were dependent on the issuer or accepting merchant. Not the terminal itself.
 
That seems like a weird comparison to make, but as long as it has been made, it actually to me makes Apple Pay sound less popular than I would have guessed.

If I understand this right, only slightly more people use Apple Pay, which is a way of using almost any credit card for any purchase at any location, than use the Starbucks mobile order app at Starbucks cafes.

That means out of the virtually endless places you could use Apple Pay, about the same number use the Starbucks mobile app to pay at a single store.

I don't see that as a winning statistic.

Indeed. The rest could prefer Dunkin Donuts coffee, lol. Ultimately it leaves a very small number of merchants actually making a dent. Or, a very large number of merchants getting very few Apple Pay transactions.

I’m sure it’ll change by next year, when NYC’s subway implementation is completed. As New Yorkers become more prone to use Apple Pay and Google Pay during their daily commute, they’ll become more inclined to use it throughout their day too. The amount of transactions in NYC alone, would cause national NFC use to increase exponentially.
 
I use ApplePay regularly at Sprouts, TraderJoes, WholeFoods, DicksSportingGoods, AcademySports, BassPro/Cabelas, QuikTrip gas station (inside only though), Costco, a local independent grocery store, local liquor store, many other places.

Can't use it at Walmart, Publix, Kroger, Home Depot, Sams, or Lowes though.

Our local Home Depot and Lowes have the equipment for this type of payment, heck when you look at the debit/credit machines they even have the emblem for this type of payment. But sadly they have them turned off. UGH.
 
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