Apple Pay Rolling Out at Target, Taco Bell, and Jack in the Box Across the U.S. in Coming Weeks

[ecschwarz]

That is a good point, unfortunately I only had one card that I could try it with.

I'd bet money that it's something with how the card is doing contactless on Apple Pay versus the real card. From what I've learned, there's two methods: magstripe emulation and EMV contactless. Some cards can do both in Apple Pay, while some can't (and same with the physical cards themselves). I've heard of this being a problem with US-issued Amex cards with trains in London - the card works, but Apple Pay doesn't.

 

[tmiw]

I'd bet money that it's something with how the card is doing contactless on Apple Pay versus the real card. From what I've learned, there's two methods: magstripe emulation and EMV contactless. Some cards can do both in Apple Pay, while some can't (and same with the physical cards themselves). I've heard of this being a problem with US-issued Amex cards with trains in London - the card works, but Apple Pay doesn't.

FWIW AmEx in Apple Pay supports EMV contactless now. You may need to delete and re-add your card though.

 

[ecschwarz]

FWIW AmEx in Apple Pay supports EMV contactless now. You may need to delete and re-add your card though.

Glad to hear - was that a recent change? Any way to check?

 

[tmiw]

Glad to hear - was that a recent change? Any way to check?

Yep. Basically if it shows an AID when you try to use it at, say, Walgreens, EMV contactless is supported.

 

[lartola]

Hmm that is rather strange unless ofc apple pay is processed differently than the card, I do not know how apple pay works on the prosesing end, but might be that the shuttle did not except credit cards but it detected (for some odd reesaon) apple pay as debit. If someone with knowlage an peermision to talk about it can chime inn it will be apreciated

Maybe the issuing bank had placed a hold on the plastic card. Typically, holds affect the card but don't affect mobile wallets such as Apple Pay which will still work.

 

[EdT]

So explain how the number is stolen? do staff in Target stores take your card from you. One should never allow that. The danger of this occurring is at an ATM with a skimming device added to the card entry and a camera located yo capture PIN.

The same way a lot of stores and banks have numbers stolen: someone either hacks or has access to that companies database. It happened twice in 2 years against Target, I think 2015 and 2016, and both times my bank card-NOT a Target card- was among the numbers in the database compromised.

Not my fault, not my banks fault, but I’m the one who had to change other accounts that used that compromised cards so that auto pay features or one click options tied to the card didn’t bounce or worse weren’t fraudulently used like Netflix, my electric bill, Amazon account, etc.

PITA and it can happen to or with any company or financial institution. The difference is that Apple Pay doesn’t use your credit card number directly. It creates a token number that is the only number that the store or institution sees. This token is a use it then forget it number that won’t be directly linked to your bank account beyond however long it takes the store to notify the bank about what the charge is and for the bank to transfer the money.

It would probably be possible for someone to hack the bank/ financial institution and see what gets accessed when Apple Pay notifies your bank but that is a lot harder to do. Doesn’t stop someone from hacking your financial institution and stealing a bunch of accounts that way.

 

[lartola]

So the US didn’t have contactless? It’s been standard for 15 years. I don’t even remember the last time I used a chip or a PIN...

Nope, it didn’t. When apple pay was launched in the US in 2014, less than 10% percent of the merchants there actually accepted contactless payment (it was probably the only country where apple bypassed their own requirement of having enough contactless penetration among merchants in order to launch apple pay) . Out of the rest, some had the nfc readers turned off and others -the majority- only had magnetic stripe readers. There were also a few merchants such as CVS, target or Walmart that purposely turned off their contactless readers right after apple pay was released because they didn’t want to accept it, thereby blocking all other forms of contactless payment at the same time. So when it is announced that a merchant is rolling out apple pay, it simply means they are turning on contactless payment. Americans are unfamiliar with contactless cards and to them contactless = apple pay because that was the first form of contactless payment they ever heard of.

 

[ecschwarz]

...Out of the rest, some had the nfc readers turned off and others -the majority- only had magnetic stripe readers. There were also a few merchants such as CVS, target or Walmart that purposely turned off their contactless readers right after apple pay was released because they didn’t want to accept it, thereby blocking all other forms of contactless payment at the same time. So when it is announced that a merchant is rolling out apple pay, it simply means they are turning on contactless payment. Americans are unfamiliar with contactless cards and to them contactless = apple pay because that was the first form of contactless payment they ever heard of.

Well-said! For the posters from other parts of the world, I'm sure it does feel like we're living in the stone age here, but some of it has to do with the sheer volume of locations for some retailers (replacing tens of terminals at thousands of stores can get costly) and trying to save money for the bottom line (replace the terminals and back-end systems when they're on their last legs). It also seems that in some countries, the banks issue/lease terminals to merchants, rather than merchants owning/operating the terminals themselves - that's how a lot of small businesses work here, so they've been able to accept Apple Pay early on.

Contactless cards had a few brief moments, but there were few places to use them and the fear of getting your information skimmed by a boogeyman that had a reader in their coat pocket sort of hurt chances of growth. Even today, I know people who get RFID-blocking wallets (now that contactless cards are being issued by more banks) or refuse to load cards in Apple Pay, but don't give a second thought to swiping a magnetic stripe in some sketchy outdoor ATM or gas pump.