Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

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

I don't think they realize that the majority of US consumers spends money they haven't made yet. In order for CurrentC to work, you need to have adequate funds in your checking account. For a $9.99 pack of batteries, that's fine. What if you want to buy a big ticket item at Best Buy? Then there's going to be issues.

Plus, the very reason I use my credit card is the cash back benefits. Even if I have money in my checking account, which I always do, I use credit to get cash back. CurrentC cuts this out.

Apple just needs to remove the apps from the App Store. Problem solved. Funny how these retailers completely rely on the App Store but cut out Apple Pay.
 
Miles Teg said:
Go to iTunes and give a review of the CurrentC app :rolleyes:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id912922036?mt=8
Click to expand...

I think app reviews should be based on the quality of tha app. Does it do what it is supposed to do, easily, safely, without crashing?

It's a legal nightmare, but I think if Apple and Google determine that CurrentC has taken steps to remove the capability of paying using Apple Pay or Google Wallet, it _might_ be totally legal for Apple and Google to remove CurrentC apps from their respective stores, and CurrentC running neither on iPhones nor on Android devices means it is effectively dead.

Since all these actions don't affect the actual decision makers, I'd suggest buying at different stores and telling the people at the other store why you switched. Because "I switched to your store because you support Apple Pay / Google Wallet, unlike your competitor", that is good news which will get reported upward and actually listened to.
 
kas23 said:
I don't think they realize that the majority of US consumers spends money they haven't made yet. In order for CurrentC to work, you need to have adequate funds in your checking account. For a $9.99 pack of batteries, that's fine. What if you want to buy a big ticket item at Best Buy? Then there's going to be issues.

Plus, the very reason I use my credit card is the cash back benefits. Even if I have money in my checking account, which I always do, I use credit to get cash back. CurrentC cuts this out.

Apple just needs to remove the apps from the App Store. Problem solved. Funny how these retailers completely rely on the App Store but cut out Apple Pay.
Click to expand...

Are we 100% that CurrentC will only work via ACH and not through a variety of payment methods (IE store issued credit cards, etc) ?
 
ProfessorHenry said:
That's what happens when you take away a toy from a child.
Click to expand...

People have given some pretty sound reasons for wanting to encourage stores to adopt a much safer payment technology. Perhaps some day you can contribute something intelligent to the conversation that would actually advance the conversation.
 
samcraig said:
No. The credit card companies are in it because it reduces their potential for fraud. Not because it encourages more use of their products. If Apple Pay didn't exist, people would still use cards as much as they do - but the CC companies would continue to have fraud issues they may not have any longer (in #s) because of things like Apple Pay.

For the CC companies - there is a higher cost of the transaction - but they believe (and it's likely so) that the amount they save in fraud is well worth that added cost.
Click to expand...

That's thinking about the short game. The long game is credit card companies understandably want to curtail any alternate payment method like MCX taking hold. So if Apple has a more convenient way of making it happen, then they are going to be behind it 100%. Hence their HUGE support of Apple pay out of the gate.

But I completely agree security and privacy is going to be the main issue pushed by credit card companies over MCX. And they have a high probably of making a VERY effective campaign.

And there will be the nuclear issue of whether or not Apple/Google just decide not to support the CurrentC app. MCX is in the awkward spot of trying to stifle the same competitor they desperately need to get any traction on their product.
 
Last edited:
Cuban Missles said:
Went to Rite Aid today. Filled a basket with stuff and walked up to the cashier and tried to pay with my phone. When it did not work I left it all on the counter and told them that they just lost a sales and a customer.

Will do the same at CVS tomorrow.


Everyone should do this. They need to understand that refusing to take money the way I want to give it will indeed cost them revenue.
Click to expand...

You are the only one losing money and time with your protest. Unless you get gasoline for free and your time is worthless it's your loss. Baskets of merchandise are routinely returned to the shelves daily.

Yet you have every right to act out in ways that make you feel good.
 
In 1800+ post it's probably already been said, but I have to say it anyway...

So CVS and Rite-Aid both had in-place, working, NFC terminals, which support secure transactions, they CHOSE to disable them, and they offer no current alternative secure form of payment?

Anyway you slice it, that is a dick move.
 
cmaier said:
Are the Aldi's national? Never heard of them either on the east coast or west coast.
Click to expand...


Check out www.aldi.us

They have great produce prices. I thought they just took debit cards, though I wonder if that changed?? Last time I used my debit card there I think the cashier might have run it as a credit transaction as I didn't need to enter my PIN. I found that odd and my receipt said credit as the payment method.
 
Rayd5365 said:
In 1800+ post it's probably already been said, but I have to say it anyway...

So CVS and Rite-Aid both had in-place, working, NFC terminals, which support secure transactions, they CHOSE to disable them, and they offer no current alternative secure form of payment?

Anyway you slice it, that is a dick move.
Click to expand...
Cash?

And yes, pretty much every post has been yea or nay on whether it is a crap move.
 
JAT said:
Well, that would just open up new problems. Apple can't do that.
Click to expand...

Actually, Apple can. They don't have any obligation to accept any application for their store.

But, doing so would indeed open up new problems.
 
MyopicPaideia said:
They're international actually. German company from the start IIRC. That's where I first saw them as an exchange student in high school, anyway. I've seen them in England, and the Midwest in the US, not kn the east or west coasts, though.

They are pretty warehousy type places generally, not very bright or clean or nice places to shop, lots of discount brands or brands you've never heard of, generally sourced from non-western or 2nd world econcomic markets. Don't know their policies or sources on produce or dairy, though, might be nore of a coop type arrangement for those kinds of goods.
Click to expand...

Just saying: Aldi has an emphasis of _cheap looking_. Not being cheap. For example, there was a story in Germany how they went to a tile company to design floor tiles for all their stores that were high quality, extremely long lasting, and _cheap looking_. In the UK, most of their goods are made by well-known German companies but in different packaging using made-up brand names.
 
This kind of BS is all the more reason why Apple should hurry up with introducing Apple Pay Outside US in countries where NFC is already ubiquitous.
They would have a much easier time of it.
In Canada NFC is everywhere and NOBODY would even think of trying to block it on existing terminals because it would block not just Apple Pay by everyone with NFC credit cards which is pretty much everybody now.
 
dwsolberg said:
The credit card processing fees represents 2% or more of purchases, and retailers working with narrow profit margins obviously want to get more of that share for themselves.

Unfortunately for CVS and RiteAid, deliberately limiting consumer options to drive consumers to use your future system is just bad business. This is similar in many ways to DRM, where you want consumers to operate in your ecosystem. It's also similar to DRM in that consumers will actively avoid these limitations.

Even worse, these companies don't yet have an alternative. After using Apple Pay, it's easy to tell this is the best possible consumer experience, and retailers aren't going to be able to either hide the convenience of ApplePay or create an equally good system. (Technically, they probably could create an equally good system, but that would require putting the customer first, which is against their primary motivation to make more money.)

There's a lot of money at stake, so I understand why retailers want to build their own payment system. However, they're too late to the game. This will be an epic fight, and Apple (and probably Google in a year or so) will be the winner. Deliberately limiting customers is going to push people to other retailers and possibly to more online purchases.
Click to expand...

Yea I agree with your comments. I think it is very telling that CVS had no problem accepting NFC in the past, and has only now decided to disable it. And, as you pointed out, they do not even have an alternative in place. People should be asking themselves why they choose to do this?
 
ptb42 said:
Wow. There are 400+ 1-star ratings, 1 3-star, and 3 5-star. (The last ones are probably shills).

Among the 99 written reviews, only one of them is positive.
Click to expand...

To be fair, pretty much all of the reviews came AFTER this news story.
 
iChrist said:
Sorry, I am on the side of small business over Apple and their 30% cut any day.

:apple:
Click to expand...

I think you are really confused on how the Apple Pay works in terms of their % - it's 0.15% paid by the credit card merchants, and NOT a 30% off the overall purchase price.

Apple Pay is a great step forward in terms of end-user financial security, and I believe that Apple are doing what they do best - taking an existing technology and improving it's usability allowing a much wider adoption by the public.
 
gavroche said:
Please stop telling people what they should and should not want. You have absolutely no right.
It's about wanting us to catch up to a good part of the rest of the world that already has NFC, and already has far more safe and secure payment methods.
With comments like yours, i very very much hope and demand that once NFC becomes the norm here, that you keep on using checks ore magnetic strips. This technology should be denied to people like you.
Ridiculing people that want something better. Find a better hobby than Apple bashing.
Click to expand...

ptb42 said:
Actually, Apple can. They don't have any obligation to accept any application for their store.
Click to expand...

I HATE when people go to the 'Steve would/would never card....' but you do have to wonder how Jobs would have handled this issue. This seems like the they of 'war on' thing he liked to get riled up about. If MCX cut off Apple Pay I wonder if he'd quickly cut support for their App and start a PR war about it....
But, doing so would indeed open up new problems.
 
wxman2003 said:
You also get discounts from Walgreens with their reward card. I have it attached to my key chain and wave it in front of their bar code reader before payment. Always get a discount, plus points that add to even more discounts as the points accumulate. I save more money at Walgreen vs CVS.
Click to expand...

Yea.... i've never found CVS to be cheap. But mixing price into the equation is just clouding the issue. The real issue is this: If you have two stores that are both selling the same product at the same price, and the only difference to you the consumer is that one store accepts a payment option that you prefer and find to be safer... is that a valid reason to choose that store over the other. Absolutely. And i question the motives of anyone that tries to tell you it is not.
 
samcraig said:
Are we 100% that CurrentC will only work via ACH and not through a variety of payment methods (IE store issued credit cards, etc) ?
Click to expand...

I think I read somewhere that store issued credit cards will be supported. However, I will never apply for a store issued credit card. Ever. One of the quickest ways to kill a credit rating is by opening tons of new accounts. Additionally, the card I use the most comes with purchase protection and reward points. Why would I want to fracture those points by spreading them out over several retailer accounts? It would be a short sighted move.
 
Just sent this message to Riteaid

Maybe it's just a waste of time, but I just sent this message to RiteAid's customer service on its website:

I recently bought an iPhone 6. Part of the reason I bought the iPhone is that I want to start using the contactless payment method permitted by Apple Pay instead of using my less secured credit card.

I've read that Riteaid will not allow contactless payments from Apple Pay, Google Wallet or any other NFC based system. I understand that the reason is that Riteaid will be part of a consortium of retailers who are trying to save money by cutting out the credit card companies and will present their own mobile payment system sometime in 2015. Perhaps Riteaid will pass that savings along to their customers.

I'm a long time Riteaid customer, but I'm transferring all of my prescriptions away from Riteaid to Walgreens, who is continuing to support contactless payments. Walgreens is slightly less convenient than Riteaid, but I don't want to support a retailer who harms its customers in an effort to gain leverage against the credit card companies.

Perhaps Riteaid's mobile payment plan will be just as convenient as Apple Pay on my iPhone 6, and I'll come back to Riteaid. We'll see when Riteaid's system is up and running in 2015. In the meantime, I'll do as much of my shopping at Walgreens as I can.​
 
mantan said:
I HATE when people go to the 'Steve would/would never card....' but you do have to wonder how Jobs would have handled this issue. This seems like the they of 'war on' thing he liked to get riled up about. If MCX cut off Apple Pay I wonder if he'd quickly cut support for their App and start a PR war about it....
But, doing so would indeed open up new problems.
Click to expand...

I agree that a "war" think is no good. But to think that way is not going to be very productive. It really just boils down to personal choice. If i think that paying with Apple Pay is safer and convenient, I will choose to use it. If a store that does not accept it happens to be more convenient to me on a given day, or happens to have a much better price on a given day, then I'd probably go that route. Personal choice. And if enough people choose in a given way, it will affect what merchants do.
 
GrimmsGirl said:
I think I read somewhere that store issued credit cards will be supported. However, I will never apply for a store issued credit card. Ever. One of the quickest ways to kill a credit rating is by opening tons of new accounts. Additionally, my BoA debit card comes with purchase protection and reward points. Why would I want to fracture those points by spreading them out over several retailer accounts? It would be a short sighted move.
Click to expand...
Only by opening them all at once, maybe. Opening one per year will increase your rating, most likely. You actually do need many accounts to have a high rating. But yes, choose them wisely. I tend to stay away from store accounts, too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back