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CVS Stores Reportedly Disabling NFC to Shut Down Apple Pay and Google Wallet

I for one will boycott any business that disables NFC payments simply to usurp Apple Pay. Competition is good, and I welcome CurrentC, but to turn away Apple Pay customers and cut off existing Google Wallet and NFC-embedded credit card customers to protect a non-existent competing platform is absurd! I for one have two competing pharmacies in my area that officially support Apple Pay (Meijer and Walgreens), so CVS, I guess you lose!
 
aleskiw said:
I for one will boycott any business that disables NFC payments simply to usurp Apple Pay. Competition is good, and I welcome CurrentC, but to turn away Apple Pay customers and cut off existing Google Wallet and NFC-embedded credit card customers to protect a non-existent competing platform is absurd! I for one have two competing pharmacies in my area that officially support Apple Pay (Meijer and Walgreens), so CVS, I guess you lose!
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Better check that Meijer - an earlier post in this thread stated it was turned off there now too 🙂
 
Paddle1 said:
This is bad for Apple, they will have to prove themselves or Apple Pay will be thwarted deliberately. They shouldn't need to disable payment to compete. These are unfair tactics.

And why not "disable" paying with cash and cards as well? Let's all just wait for CurrentC. 🙄
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Apple will be fine even if every company in this alternative payment coalition thwarts Apple Pay. All it needs is continued adoption among other companies. And it's not just Apple they're thwarting, it's NFC. If Apple Pay catches on, they'll eventually need to play ball.

It's no big surprise that some companies are resisting an alternative solution which leaves them with less customer information.
 
JoeTomasone said:
Early next year, iPhone owners that buy Apple Watch will be amongst those numbers.

Late next year, those who upgrade to the next iPhone from an iPhone 5 or earlier will add to the numbers.

Whose to say that Apple Pay won't open up to Canada and other countries next year, and add those owners to the ranks?

Regardless, I'd say that to bet against Apple's ability to market to their enthusiastic customers is not an astute move. And when an MCX member merchant is breached next year, the first question I will have is: Was CurrentC participant bank account info breached?

Give my bank account info to the all-too-porous merchants? I think not. At least with a credit card it's not my money being stolen and with my debit card there's a maximum amount that can be taken before fraud protections kick in. With my bank account info there's the potential for a criminal to steal large chunks of money.

Lastly, consider this: MCX's members that disable NFC are not only affecting Apple Pay customers, but Google Wallet customers as well - so they are potentially alienating essentially every customer with a smartphone just as contactless payments are starting to get a lot of publicity and mindshare. Any way you slice it, this is a pretty stupid move.
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This ... again ... for the umpteenth time. This isn't just effecting Apple users, it's effecting anyone with NFC capabilities. All the anti-Apple people spewing bull crap like "entitlement" and whatnot are missing the bigger picture here. The move makes no sense. The feature was there ... and is now being removed in lieu of their own wallet pay option.
 
StyxMaker said:
Apple allows Starbucks contactless payments. They host the Starbucks card in Passbook. They don't even, to the best of my knowledge, take a cut of the transactions.
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I'd be quite wary of any arrangement involving Apple that doesn't pay them handsomely. They didn't amass the vast cash hoard they have without getting paid at every turn... LOL.
 
Moto G said:
I think a LOT of people could maybe read the book of Revelation, and see what they make of "The mark of the beast" and how a unified payment system correlates to what was foretold, and now the signs are coming to pass.



Only the spiritually blind could not see these signs.
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Only the theologically ignorant would think that such eschatology was anything other than modern heresy.
 
mackinmike said:
Seriously are people really gonna stop shopping there becuz they stopped accepting apple pay? just use another form of payment.. something that we've been doing for decades. Sheesh.. no need to get ur panties in a bunch.
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You don't get it. Making NFC payments ubiquitous using a standard such as Apply Pay will be impossible if individual retailers deny those forms of payment. Fragmented payment forms will be really annoying. It's like if McDonald's stopped taking Visa, but took MC or Discover.
 
RedOrchestra said:
If you're willing to back-up everything you own to iCloud, and everything about yourself on Facebook. what's an SSN here and there?
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Actually I don't backup everything to iCloud and I don't really post a lot of personal stuff to Facebook or Google. In fact, I have known to make up crap when they want information.
 
I have all my prescriptions at Walgreens, so let's hope they don't decide to follow in CVS' footsteps. Something I wonder though, wouldn't CVS have had an agreement with Apple to offer Apple Pay? If they disable it then they are going against their agreement/contract with Apple, aren't they? I won't be getting the iPhone 6 Plus until at least mid-November, so I'm hoping to be able to use Apple Pay somewhere! Lol
 
For me, this all misses the point

I'd be curious if those that suggest the NFC (ApplePay or others) is just a gimmick without any real value, would indicate if they've ever tried it. Sure I can pull out my trusty CC, or fumble around for cash and change. But ApplePay is so clean, quick and well executed, I just plain enjoy using it. I'm sure in time the novelty will wear off, but going back to CC's would be a giant pain.
 
What irks me most about the CVS/RiteAid decisions is that they are regressing. It's one thing if you don't have NFC and announce you have no plans to support it, it is another to go and turn it off because it is too convenient and you are worried about alienating your customers when you ask them to switch to your own homegrown mobile wallet in the future to shave off a few bps in transaction costs.

This goes back to what Tim Cook said when Apple Pay was announced. Other solutions focused on a business models before coming up with an actual improvement in the way payments works for both the consumer and businesses. Apple Pay effectively changes nothing on the behind the scenes transaction side. The merchant should not care if a card is swiped or taped they are getting the same card present fee. Apple Pay leverages new specifications on the tokenization of credit cards but other than that it is built on the existing NFC platform that is accepted globally (with the U.S. being the further behind of any first world country) only making it more secure and quite convenient.

MCX is a business model. Stores want to cut out the credit card companies by enabling folks to pay from their bank accounts at lower rates via ACH but they realize they need a bunch merchants to get together to get traction. They promise to give discounts to MCX users and they will be able to afford it as they are saving in credit card fees. At least that is the plan, reality is different. Will it be easier to actually pull out your phone, open an app and get a scanner to pick up a QR code? Will folks be willing to give up their existing credit card rewards in favor of other discounts?

Only time will tell but I will say this, credit cards and debit cards have been around for a very long a time and are as popular as ever and it is because of one reason, they just work. Apple Pay made them work even better so MCX is going to have to be pretty amazing to get over that hurdle and from what I have seen and read about it, it falls well short.
 
J. Jizzle said:
I have all my prescriptions at Walgreens, so let's hope they don't decide to follow in CVS' footsteps. Something I wonder though, wouldn't CVS have had an agreement with Apple to offer Apple Pay? If they disable it then they are going against their agreement/contract with Apple, aren't they? I won't be getting the iPhone 6 Plus until at least mid-November, so I'm hoping to be able to use Apple Pay somewhere! Lol
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No agreement with Apple is needed. All that is needed is an NFC terminal. CVS disabled their NFC terminals.
 
Moto G said:
You seem not to understand infrastructure and (re)training of staff on what they know about new technologies and payment methods. I constantly ask the shops local to us (CO-OP, UK) "Do you sell 360money vouchers?" (prepaid mastercard vouchers) - "NO", they say. Next, ask for the manager, and suddenly he says "Of course we do".

Naive customer walks in with iPhone 6, asks "do you accept Mapple pay?" - if staff aren't aware they do, that could mean lost sales.

Staff need training, no matter how little that training is. Poor (or no) training = lost sales. 🙂
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Then train them..... they are not stupid... unless you are telling us something about people in England we didn't know about.
 
bdbolin said:
So unbelievable how these CEO's don't realize the potential of ApplePay. Nope, they want a large piece of the pie instead of a small piece - greedy greedy, they will all lose in the end.
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These CEOs and their MCX consortium do se Apple Pays potential, that is why they are blocking it.
 
I think I will write a letter to Target to cancel my RedCard. It seems the RedCard is the beta-test of CurrentC anyway as it is even listed as one of the payment methods you can link in the CurrentC app.

I will let Target know it's because of their support of CurrentC and because of CurrentC's anti-competitive behavior. I will be clear that I would not be taking this action if CurrentC was willing to let the two payment methods exist side by side and let customers choose.

I am sure that CurrentC management is nervous that ApplePay may have significant uptake and if consumers get used to using it they would have no reason to enroll in CurrentC's clunky by comparison system.

As strongly as Target seems to want people to sign up for RedCard, I think massive cancellations might get their attention. And then every time a Target clerk asks me to get a RedCard I can politely say no I won't do so because they won't take ApplePay in store.

Oh and there is still a way to save 5+% without the RedCard. I buy Target gift cards from Raise.com for 4% off with my 2.2% cash back credit card and then load them into Target's online gift card website. It actually generates a QR code that Target scans when I check out.....it's probably a CurrentC website lol, but I didn't give any personal info to create my login, so they have no way to track me....so it denies them what they really want anyway.
 
Moto G said:
I think a LOT of people could maybe read the book of Revelation, and see what they make of "The mark of the beast" and how a unified payment system correlates to what was foretold, and now the signs are coming to pass.

Only the spiritually blind could not see these signs.
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Let's leave religion out of this...and I think the prevailing opinion is it involves Barcodes on your wrist or microchips in your arms or something..
 
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