95% in Canada now, 94% in Canada when it launched. We've had EMV support for a while, and the cards work much better than they describe it by the way. It takes less than a second to do the beep most of the time. And it's rare you have to move it or whatever.
EDIT: I made a mistake and confused EMV with NFC contactless cards. What I mean to say is that we've had contactless here for a while. Though EMV isn't too bad, if I were to be honest.
EMV is the chip and PIN. Are you not talking about contactless NFC cards that you just tap on the front of the terminal?
We use both all over here in Canada and NFC is far more convenient than the EMV chip.
This is a common misconception that EMV and NFC are different things - they are not. EMV is the technology used to process payments. It can be implemented over a contact interface (inserting the card), or a contactless/NFC interface (tapping the card, payment tag, mobile device etc.).
Apple Pay is simply an implementation of contactless EMV.
The payment kernels from each of the major payment networks that process contactless transactions (each has its own kernel as the transaction flow differs slightly) can support two processing paths or mode:
- EMV Mode - in which the transaction process follows a similar flow as inserting an EMV card, and the same type of data is transmitted to the issuer for verification. It also supports things like offline data authentication, offline authroisation, and cardholder verification. On mobile devices, cardholder verification can performed on the device (such as using Touch ID or your passcode in Apple Pay).
- Magnetic Stripe Data (MSD) Mode - a legacy mode in which the transaction process and resulting data emulates a swipe transaction and does not include the extra EMV data elements.
Most contactless/NFC transactions outside of the US run in EMV Mode. Within the US, unfortunately most terminals while capable of EMV Mode, are only setup to run in MSD Mode (and in many cases even if the merchant processes EMV transactions when inserting the card, they still can only run contactless in MSD mode - actually a contravention of VISA's own acceptance rules but that's a separate discussion).
Apple Pay can support both EMV Mode and MSD Mode transactions, but implementation varies by the card type and the country. For example, US VISA cards support both in Apple Pay, whereas Canadian VISA cards in Apple Pay only support EMV Mode. This means that a Canadian travelling to the US with a VISA card in Apple Pay will have it fail at many places presently.
Here in Canada NFC is ubiquitous and I rarely have to take out my credit card. It does happen in smaller shops and in restaurants. I think restaurants don't like NFC because there is no tip prompt when you tap. Or can the terminals be configured somehow to include a tip prompt and still use NFC? I don't think I've seen that.
It's coming.
In Canada, the tip amount is required to be included in the total authorisation amount so the total has to be known prior to tapping.
When the wireless terminals were first deployed, most models at the time did not support contactless, so the programming logic was like this:
- Enter purchase amount, insert card, confirm total, add tip, enter PIN, remove card.
The newer terminals do support contactless, but the initial software followed the same flow and if you tapped a card, it would not prompt for a tip. The software is slowly being updated to prompt for the tip before asking you to insert/tap the card, so this will fix that issue.
Is the US implementation of chip and pin broken or something? In the UK you enter your card, wait about 2 seconds, enter your pin, wait about 2 more seconds and then you're done. Sure it's not the 1-2 seconds a contactless payment takes but it's not as bad as you're making out.
Yes, it is "broken" at many places. Many US merchants, especially large merchants wanted to continue to fully integrate their payment processing into their POS. It is not the PIN pads themselves which are slow, but the often crappy and rushed software, customised payment applications on the terminals, and communication between the two that has resulted in the poor user experience. In other countries, merchants have often taken a less integrated approach either using standalone terminals, or using some level of semi-integration with abstracts the payment processing from the actual POS and results in a much better user experience.
Publix accepts Samsung pay. Their employees have been told Publix doesn't accept Apple Pay because it costs the company money. Since that's not true (Apple Pay doesn't increase the merchant fee), I smell a rat.
While I wouldn't necessarily trust the word of a front-line grocery store employee, and while it is true that Apple Pay specifically does not cost a merchant more, it is certainly possible for contactless transactions in general to have a higher cost to the merchant depending on their agreement with their merchant provider.
The only thing that some payment machines need to change is the need to sign. I haven't signed my name for at least 3 years now. I just slash a line across there or draw a happy face.
I don't think we have a limit here in the states since it is authenticated by fingerprint.
The US needs to adopt EMV Mode at its contactless terminals to fully take advantage of Touch ID as a verification method. Otherwise, be used to signing sometimes as its not different than a swipe transaction.
Re Costco: talked last week with a Costco manager (15 years on staff) and he told me that Costco is heading toward NFC but the software is the holdup. Agreed that EMV is off because it slows down checkout speed and fraud is manageable since each customer being verified via ID. He uses Samsung Pay so is into the tech personally.
What is most interesting is he said that the talk internally is that Costco may just implement NFC payments while never activating EMV in order to get the benefits of tokenized transactions (via NFC) while avoiding the slowdowns associated with EMV.
I think it is more likely you will see EMV (contact and contactless/NFC) come at the same time at Costco. If they actually spend the time to optimise their software (or move to a semi-integrated processing model like Costco Canada uses), there should not be issues with processing time of transactions. Walgreens is a perfect example of a US merchant using a fully integrated processing system that has managed to deliver very quick EMV processing.
Just because Costco ties a transaction to a membership does not mean they do not receive EMV liability shift related chargebacks - they absolutely can and very likely are. And there is no recourse for these. They need to enable contact EMV on the terminals for this.
And enabling both contact and contactless EMV transactions qualifies them for VISA's Transaction Innovation Program which reduces some PCI compliance requirements and will actually save them money.
I thought the retailer picked up the bill if they have shown to be negligent ie not checked the signature.
The merchant can be liable for not properly verifying a signature if a chargeback occurs, and the transaction is above certain limits (in the US for example, above $25/50 for VISA depending on the merchant category). Merchants actually should prefer PIN or cardholder device verification as it removes the requirement for a human to be part of the verification process.
Also, if your shops take EMV cards now, do they not also take contactless just using the NFC in the card?
Most cards issued in the US currently do not support contactless. This may change in the future (or not).