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Apple Responds to CVS/Rite Aid Controversy: 'Overwhelmingly Positive' Response, Working to Add Merchants

Aragornii said:
Any time the government requires you to pay money it's a tax, regardless of what they call it.
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When President Reagan began the 'Obamaphone' concept in 1984, it was to help unemployed people off welfare and into jobs.

Thus even if we were using tax dollars to do it (which we are not) it is a program designed to get people back to a point where they are employed productive tax paying citizens, and not sitting on welfare indefinitely.
 
KUguardgrl13 said:
As an iPhone 5 owner (and therefore one who cannot use ApplePay), it'll be interesting to see how this plays out. Of course I'm rooting for ApplePay because it's the more secure option. I'm not going to hand over my SSN and driver's license to Walmart.

Unfortunately shopping at Walmart seems to be unavoidable for me. They're the only store in town that consistently carries the cat food and litter that I buy (if you own a cat you understand why that's important!). But at the same time I hate them because they want to come into my hometown and replace our local hardware store chain and the beer distributor while probably destroying the creek that runs along the property. Why do they feel the need to come into an already saturated suburb?!

I hope Target and some of the others will be able to get out of this and bring in NFC payments. It seems to be the future for in-store purchases. But for now I'll stick with my Visa debit card from my credit union until I can use my upgrade on Verizon.
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I buy my cat food from Amazon. The litter I buy from Menards, especially when they have their 11% off everything sale. 40 lb boxes last a little while at least.

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ZCT said:
When President Reagan began the 'Obamaphone' concept in 1984, it was to help unemployed people off welfare and into jobs.

Thus even if we were using tax dollars to do it (which we are not) it is a program designed to get people back to a point where they are employed productive tax paying citizens, and not sitting on welfare indefinitely.
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People who use the term "Obamaphone" are only confused by actual facts. That's why they watch Fox News. When they only hear what they want to hear, it goes in their brain holes easier. When it feeds their irrational fears, their brains suck it in like a black hole and no amount of actual facts can suck it back out.
 
The real issue for retailers is not Apple Pay, it's credit card companies.

Apple Pay got all major banks on board because it uses the existing credit card system, thereby making it even more indispensable than it already is.

MCX CurrentC is an attempt to bypass the up to 10% cut (or fixed amount + %) that banks together with credit card companies charge merchants on every transaction.

So while I am thrilled about Apple Pay and have been avidly using it since day 1, I am not a fan of credit card companies. They have too little competition and merchants are too much in a position of weakness to negotiate anything better.

It might not be a problem for Walmart, but I was talking to my watch repairer the other day, a 50-year old 1 man business, the guy is genius with watches, but he's no lawyer or accountant. And I felt bad for him as he was reading through Visa's contract and had no choice but to sign it no matter how outrageous its terms were.

I'm not saying MCX would help him directly, but if there's any chance it creates competition against credit card companies which indirectly forces Visa/MC/Amex to lower their rates, the real economy, small entrepreneurs, will win.

And in parallel to that, we the customers are constantly on the hunt for credit cards with even higher benefits, like 5% cash back, and who ultimately bears the cost of that? Retailers, because credit cards are still getting their usual cut no matter, on top of whatever cash back they give us.
 
Keirasplace said:
Debit is a safer system (when using chip and pin) and its less expensive than credit for any transaction over $10; for a $100 transaction, its 0.2%! Why don't they promote debit transactions from $10+ sales then if its only to stick in to the CC companies.
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Just for reference, Debit takes forever to get money back into your account if there is fraud, Visa/MC/Disc/AMex take it off your bill immediately. It has been a problem in the past for my wife, now she only uses debit cards for the grocery store, and a credit card for everywhere else.
 
MacRumors said:
Update 6:55 PM PT: Walmart, one of the major retailers behind MCX, has given Business Insider a statement on why it has opted not to accept Apple Pay, stating that it believes merchants are in the "best position" to create a mobile payment service for consumers.
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I call ************ on this (and I'm sure Im not the first). The fact that vendors like RiteAid and CVS had to specifically disable Apple Pay on their pre-existing terminals shows that it's not a matter of having infrastructure to support it. The MCX is after your information, pure and simple, plus they want to cut some of the costs of credit card fees.
 
This looks familiar. Didn't RIM try to make the same stand when the smartphone industry was clearly going in a new direction? I thought we, as humans, had a better time learning by example...
 
For the sake of accuracy Apple doesn't directly respond to CVS and Rite-Aid blocking Apple Pay, only mentions 'getting retailers on board'.
 
MacRumors said:
MCX's members believe merchants are in the best position to provide a mobile solution because of their deep insights into their customers' shopping and buying experiences.
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If this is true, then why is the MCX Proposed payment system something no customer would want to use, and only benefits the store by elminating credit card fees?

Companies really should stop saying they know what customers want when announcing something customers dont care about.
 
Yinmay said:
The real issue for retailers is not Apple Pay, it's credit card companies.

Apple Pay got all major banks on board because it uses the existing credit card system, thereby making it even more indispensable than it already is.

MCX CurrentC is an attempt to bypass the up to 10% cut (or fixed amount + %) that banks together with credit card companies charge merchants on every transaction.

So while I am thrilled about Apple Pay and have been avidly using it since day 1, I am not a fan of credit card companies. They have too little competition and merchants are too much in a position of weakness to negotiate anything better.

It might not be a problem for Walmart, but I was talking to my watch repairer the other day, a 50-year old 1 man business, the guy is genius with watches, but he's no lawyer or accountant. And I felt bad for him as he was reading through Visa's contract and had no choice but to sign it no matter how outrageous its terms were.

I'm not saying MCX would help him directly, but if there's any chance it creates competition against credit card companies which indirectly forces Visa/MC/Amex to lower their rates, the real economy, small entrepreneurs, will win.

And in parallel to that, we the customers are constantly on the hunt for credit cards with even higher benefits, like 5% cash back, and who ultimately bears the cost of that? Retailers, because credit cards are still getting their usual cut no matter, on top of whatever cash back they give us.
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Yes, the terms of the credit card brands can be onerous. But he's better off using Apple Pay in that scenario, because it gets really onerous for merchants that have a breach. They have to hire a forensic investigator (at their cost) and maybe pay fines. Particularly if they are not PCI compliant.

So by enabling and encouraging the use of Apple Pay, they potentially avoid the headaches and hassles that come with a breach of their system (or their processor's system). If everyone at Target or Home Depot had used Apple Pay, those breaches could not have happened.
 
MCX (CurrentC) can disappear but they still win, sort of a P.T. Barnum story!

MCX demanding $30,000 from retailers just to see the official PowerPoint. (That slide deck must have some amazing images.) Although charter members were asked to kick in $1 million to join, retailers are being asked to give $500,000 or $250,000.Chains are also being asked to commit to three-year mobile payment app exclusivity, meaning they won't support any non-MCX mobile payment other than any mobile payment app they have already deployed. (There's a one-year grace period from the start of membership—where retailers can get out of the deal—and that period is about to expire for most of the initial backers.)
 
pacohaas said:
SSN and bank account requirements aside, it is nice that it at least works with older devices (including the 5S that Apple still sells). For devices without NFC (which Apple neglected to add when many Android devices were adding it), it would be nice to use a version of Apple Pay, but alas you can't, so alternatives are bound to pop up.

Paypal has something similar, as does Square. I've used both of those and it's not really as hard as people make it sound. Yes it's not as easy as Apple Pay if you have a supported device, but not everyone has an iPhone 6 at this time.
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Time to buy a new phone !

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Trundle said:
MCX (CurrentC) can disappear but they still win, sort of a P.T. Barnum story!

MCX demanding $30,000 from retailers just to see the official PowerPoint. (That slide deck must have some amazing images.) Although charter members were asked to kick in $1 million to join, retailers are being asked to give $500,000 or $250,000.Chains are also being asked to commit to three-year mobile payment app exclusivity, meaning they won't support any non-MCX mobile payment other than any mobile payment app they have already deployed. (There's a one-year grace period from the start of membership—where retailers can get out of the deal—and that period is about to expire for most of the initial backers.)
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They will be breaking these agreements left and right over the next year.
 
Kinda wondering how MCX's test is doing before they roll it out sometime in 2015. They supposedly are conducting this "test" in the State of Minnesota. Are Minnesotans happy with MCX ? Or has anyone really participated in such test ?
 
It's not roses Tim..

However anything *other* than TouchID is not secure...

so really, u only have one option... unless u wanna stay with plastic, which will last us another 50 odd years.
 
caesarp said:
Yes, the terms of the credit card brands can be onerous. But he's better off using Apple Pay in that scenario, because it gets really onerous for merchants that have a breach. They have to hire a forensic investigator (at their cost) and maybe pay fines. Particularly if they are not PCI compliant.

So by enabling and encouraging the use of Apple Pay, they potentially avoid the headaches and hassles that come with a breach of their system (or their processor's system). If everyone at Target or Home Depot had used Apple Pay, those breaches could not have happened.
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Incorrect. The breaches absolutely could have happened, as the anti-EMV crowd keeps pointing out. What EMV does, in any form, is reduce the value of the data extracted in the breach, not the possibility of the breach occurring.
 
markie said:
Incorrect. The breaches absolutely could have happened, as the anti-EMV crowd keeps pointing out. What EMV does, in any form, is reduce the value of the data extracted in the breach, not the possibility of the breach occurring.
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That's what I meant. Nothing valuable would have been there to obtain. With Apple pay the value isn't reduced. There is NOTHING to obtain of any value. Therefore even if a breach occurred it's like it didn't happen since no customer data has been exposed.
 
jrswizzle said:
Best Buy is a puzzling one considering Apple was the first to set up micro stores within Best Buys and the fact that large portions of revenue for those stores comes from Apple products.

A technology retailer that's way behind in terms of technology and customer service....go figure.
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It's reasons like this that companies struggle,, I don't care who you are. Refusing to embrace technology is a death nail, point blank period. Just look at Blackberry, blockbuster....best buy struggling to stay relevent.
 
Michael Scrip said:
So how many retailers have stopped accepting credit cards?

Hell... even small mom-n-pop shops are taking credit cards with Square or something.

Look I get it... accepting credit cards can incur some extra fees. But that's the cost of doing business today.
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Obviously they won't, and obviously it's not the only thing that is stopping them from accepting Apple Pay. They're supporting the MCX technology, unfortunately.
 
laurim said:
I buy my cat food from Amazon. The litter I buy from Menards, especially when they have their 11% off everything sale. 40 lb boxes last a little while at least.
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The problem is finding a place for those 40lb boxes in my apartment that seriously lacks in storage. To each their own, but it's more convenient for me to buy the single cat quantities even if it means supporting the evil empire.
 
caesarp said:
That's what I meant. Nothing valuable would have been there to obtain. With Apple pay the value isn't reduced. There is NOTHING to obtain of any value. Therefore even if a breach occurred it's like it didn't happen since no customer data has been exposed.
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I'm not sure there is nothing of value. In theory, the value of EMV card data should be almost useless (except for the rare CNP merchant that only wants PAN/expiration date - and they're subject to liability since they didn't request CVV2/CSC2).

In reality? If the issuing bank doesn't check things like the cryptogram, ATC, etc then a fake EMV transaction can be created (even from a magstripe card!) and it be approved. This, of course, requires control of a terminal, but that's not that hard to get.

See: http://krebsonsecurity.com/2014/10/replay-attacks-spoof-chip-card-charges/

Note, this is NOT an EMV weakness. This is a "banks not actually verifying the transaction data before approving it" - these fraudulent transactions would have failed basic security checks.
 
Sigspd said:
Just for reference, Debit takes forever to get money back into your account if there is fraud, Visa/MC/Disc/AMex take it off your bill immediately. It has been a problem in the past for my wife, now she only uses debit cards for the grocery store, and a credit card for everywhere else.
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I can understand in the US were there is no chip and pin that this would be a big issue. I'm also paranoid of myself being filmed entering my pin. That's why I prefer Apple Pay, the "pin" or equivalent part is more secure.
 
ZCT said:
When President Reagan began the 'Obamaphone' concept in 1984, it was to help unemployed people off welfare and into jobs.

Thus even if we were using tax dollars to do it (which we are not) it is a program designed to get people back to a point where they are employed productive tax paying citizens, and not sitting on welfare indefinitely.
Click to expand...

The program is paid for by the USF, which is funded by taxes. And the particular program we're talking about (the "Obamaphone" program) was created by the Bush administration and took effect in 2008, not under the Reagan administration.
 
Aragornii said:
The program is paid for by the USF, which is funded by taxes. And the particular program we're talking about (the "Obamaphone" program) was created by the Bush administration and took effect in 2008, not under the Reagan administration.
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Under the Reagan Admin, a basic feature phone would have cost $500 dollars :) ($1200 in today's money) so that explains why it didn't exist then. You can get burner phones these days for $10 as good as those phones.
 
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