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Apple Pay Usage Estimated to Rise Sharply in United States Due to Frustration With Slow Chip-and-PIN Cards

Retail in Australia has had chip and pin and contactless cards for many years now. I work in a retailer and see transactions put through firsthand daily, 80-90% are contactless, but only 1% are either apple or android pay.

The big banks in this country have deliberately stalled introducing Apple Pay to try and get more money from Apple which has stymied its take up. My bank allows it but I probably only use it 30% of the time as often the card machine is out of reach and I don't want to hand over my phone.
 
Seriously...the chip cards are garbage. It's one of the stupidest tech changes for consumers in recent memory.
 
Chet-NYC said:
Having used credit cards with chips in Europe, I find the time the card needs to be in the reader almost instantaneous, especially compared to the readers here. There are some stores, Costco for instance, where the time the card needs to remain inserted to be quite short. This all seems to be a software problem.
As far as Apple Pay, I use it whenever I can. It is much faster, and since it doesn't actually use the account number printed on the card, it is safer too. It is also amusing to watch the reaction of some people who've never seen someone pay for something by holding their wrist (with an Apple Watch) over the card reader. Best comment I've gotten was, "Oh my, that just freaked me out."
Click to expand...

We have tap-to-pay cards in Canada, and the card is much smaller and easier to carry than a phone. Also, it doesn't have a battery that dies. Sure, tap-to-pay is great, but for the 95% of day-to-day small transactions tap-the-card is just easier and more reliable than Apple Pay, while for the larger transactions the extra time for chip-and-pin is no problem.

I do prefer a fingerprint to a PIN for security reasons, but since we don't need to use a PIN for small transactions, the card is just easier and more reliable.
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AVEGA said:
From my experience Apple Pay is fastest .
Swiping is second fastest .
Getting the old machines to make a copy of your credit card ( see video
)
Is faster than inserting chips .
Most places have broken chip readers so it's wildly inconsistent but when they do work it takes a good minute to process .
Click to expand...

You are in the USA ?
 
Why is chip-and-pin slow in the USA and not so in other countries?

Is it because banks/retwilers have hindered the process for who knows what reason?

Or is it because of dumb people? (Although we have those in Canada too, sadly!).

That being said, I noticed a speed difference based on retailers, where some seem to be connected all the time (super fast) and some need to connect for each transaction (slower). But still relatively fast.

On another note, I wish terminals would know how to differentiate taps from cards and taps from phones, so that they would not have a max amount.
 
Apple Pay still requires two or more steps at local retailers. After holding my iPhone up to the terminal and fingering it, I have to press "credit" and then his "yes" for amount. Nearly as slow as chipping or swiping.
 
Corrode said:
What the article didn't mention is that we've (Canada) had contactless tap-to-pay for years as well. It's hard convincing my friends to use Apple Pay when they can just tap their credit card instead.

For us, the only benefit is security. Speed is a non issue.
Click to expand...
I think it should be easy to convince. By using your credit card directly you can get added to mailing lists for the crap you buy. By doing so with Apple pay that won't be possible, thus why a lot of stores don't want to use Apple pay!
As for speed, I think taking my phone from my pocket and resting on the finger print sensor is faster, even if slightly, than removing my wallet, then removing the credit card, then whatever action is used. Last actions with the phone, even if it is a single step.
 
I love Apple Pay but have had it not work on many occasions at a variety of stores. I'd love to think that I can leave my wallet at home and just use my watch, but I have to be sure I can reliably pay as well. The chip cards take forever here in NYC compared to the standard swipe method. Hopefully that'll be fixed over time.
 
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I use Apple Pay wherever I can, but most retailers around me don’t use it. I don’t care how convenient it is, the fact that I always have my credit card in hand just in case 1) Apple Pay isn’t accepted, 2) the check out person doesn’t understand if Apple Pay does work, or 3) Apple Pay should work but the terminal is broken and nobody notices (there’s a Taco Cabana I frequent enough to know the left one works, and the right one doesn’t, but they only use the left one if it’s busy there).

I don’t blame Apple, I blame retailers who have been fighting new tech every step of the way. Two years after the deadline to move to chip only, now there’s a whole industry dedicated to making little cardboard inserts that tell people not to use the chip reader because it’s not activated. They literally just turn them off and hope people’s magnetic strips don’t get stolen.
 
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BBCWatcher said:
As it happens, the U.S. is a world leader in the invention, deployment, and adoption of contactless payments. Two decades ago, in 1997, Mobil (now part of Exxon) introduced Speedpass, a contactless payment system that works at every Mobil/Exxon fuel station and convenience store. Speedpass reached over 7 million users within 7 years. Speedpass was probably the first retail contactless payment system in the world, at least at significant scale, and predated other systems by several years.
Click to expand...
And then quickly fell behind other countries. Pretty much every credit card and payment terminal in the UK supports contactless payments, most terminals still don't in the US and contactless credit cards are almost non-existent.
 
Yeah, I'm pretty skeptical of this article's conclusions. Otherwise, Samsung Pay (which doesn't require NFC to work) would have way higher user adoption than it does.

GenesisST said:
Why is chip-and-pin slow in the USA and not so in other countries?

Is it because banks/retwilers have hindered the process for who knows what reason?

Or is it because of dumb people? (Although we have those in Canada too, sadly!).

That being said, I noticed a speed difference based on retailers, where some seem to be connected all the time (super fast) and some need to connect for each transaction (slower). But still relatively fast.

On another note, I wish terminals would know how to differentiate taps from cards and taps from phones, so that they would not have a max amount.
Click to expand...

Most stores waited until the very last second to even start migrating to chip, making the software not so good as a result. It's also partly why a lot of places still don't have NFC enabled; both require separate certifications and the liability shift only applies to chip, so the priority has been to get chip working.
 
Littleman said:
As has been said above;
Contactless wins in the UK and always will, unless Apple Pay is incentivised.
I have to get my store card out for Tesco/Morrison’s/Sainsbury’s etc anyway, so I may as well take out my credit card also.
Click to expand...

I use Apple Pay all the time and rarely even bring my wallet with me.
 
BBCWatcher said:
I'm not sure what this article is trying to say. The vast majority of EMV "chip" cards issued in the United States are "chip and signature," not "chip and PIN."

If the analyst is claiming that contactless payments will become more popular in the United States as time marches on, that's not particularly interesting news. As it happens, the U.S. is a world leader in the invention, deployment, and adoption of contactless payments. Two decades ago, in 1997, Mobil (now part of Exxon) introduced Speedpass, a contactless payment system that works at every Mobil/Exxon fuel station and convenience store. Speedpass reached over 7 million users within 7 years. Speedpass was probably the first retail contactless payment system in the world, at least at significant scale, and predated other systems by several years.
Click to expand...


News flash, my friend, there's a larger world outside your patriotic borders. Smart cards, of which today's chip-based payment cards are one implementation of, were not invented in the US.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_card
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contactless_smart_card

Welcome to the rest of the world.
 
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newyorksole said:
Pay is so easy and convenient. It baffles me that more people don't use it.
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My wife still won't use Apple Pay, sticking with her chip card. But it really amazes me now how slow those cards seem. I've gotten so spoiled by Apple Pay, and use it whenever I can. At those stores that still don't accept chip cards, even swiping the old way is much faster than the chip method. Chip cards are an idea whose time came and went. It just took too long to roll out, and tech had moved on by that point.
 
I stopped carrying a wallet in April 2016 when my bank got Apple Pay. I don't see any of the problems mentioned here.
 
In the US the problem is with retail acceptance. I believe most people would be on board with Apple Pay or Android Pay. Unlike debit/credit cards there is so much uncertainty- does this store accept Apple Pay? If so will the clerk know how to ring me up? No one wants to be the person who slows down the entire line while a cashier gets his manager because he doesn't know what Apple Pay is. So we use our chip cards and complain because it's the path of least resistance.

Apple needs to make acceptance ubiquitous and get retailers to actually train employees. Not an easy task by any means considering Kroger, Target, Walmart, etc.. are fighting petty wars over controlling payments.
 
OllyW said:
Lots of stores still have the £30 limit so I still need my wallet and card.
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Don't you jusT enter your PIN for things over the limit, same as a card, in the U.K.? Australia most stores require a PIN for payments over $100, cards and phones are treated the same .
 
We finally have contactless card readers in Germany but every so often i have to sign the receipt on top it it. Typical german. Making things harder than they need to be.

Same with mobile tickets. Why do i have to show my ID as well??? Just scan and validate the ticket
 
I love :apple: Pay. I use it whenever I can. It is so easy to use, just hold and press the home button to authenticate. No need to get open my wallet or get a card out.
 
The rollout of chip/tap has been so slow in Chicago. I try to use it whenever I can, but retailers are really dragging their feet.
 
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