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Do you use Apple Pay, and where do you use it?

melman101 said:
That's true, but inserting for chip and pin is definitely way slower than swiping which is what the poster was referring to. Also Apple Pay is significantly faster than inserting for chip and pin.

When I went to Canada in the summer, I was amazed at how fast my transactions were with Apple Pay, and how unbearably slow they were with Chip and Pin.
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I definitely agree. The post I responded to was merely comparing the security aspect. I am sure to use Apple Pay every chance I get. I was one of the ones that hoped they would release mobile payments year after year and was disappointed several times. Whether or not a store accepts Apple Pay even influences my decision to pick that store over another one.
The only time it is inconvenient is if I am already using my phone for something since I have to interrupt what I am doing. Though now that my second phone supports mobile payments as well I shouldn't have that problem.
 
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Newtons Apple said:
It leaves no traces of who used it and is accepted by everyone.
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You'd be surprised. I've been to places where they don't take cash. Card only. But that's very very very rare.

I'm trying to remember where that happened, but it's escaping me.
 
I probably use Apple Pay 6/7 times per week. If I go into a new store where I'm not sure if it's accepted I just ask "Do you accept contactless", if the answer is yes then I know that I can use it there.

I mostly use it at Tesco (I was so happy to find out the they finally switched on contactless payments outside of their London stores), Coop and a small cafe at my local train station.

Obviously use it in-app where available, mostly either Uber or JustEat.

I love Apple Pay, there is virtually no risk when compared to cards / cash. With a card, it can be cloned or a company can have their databases breached leaking all customer information and with cash, it could be stolen from me.

At least if my iPhone or Apple Watch is stolen, they can't make any payments and I can remotely remove my cards.
 
Rite Aid/Apple Store/BestBuy... might have used it one or two other locations

i use it mostly after i go to the gym, cause my wallets stuffed away in my gym bag and I usually will go out of my way to rite aid as apposed to the closer 7/11
 
dave420 said:
The only time it is inconvenient is if I am already using my phone for something since I have to interrupt what I am doing. Though now that my second phone supports mobile payments as well I shouldn't have that problem.
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I was at Whole Foods the other day watching the Warriors game live on NBC Live Extra. I held the phone up to the machine and it instantly switched to Apple Pay. The transaction went through and I was right back into the game. I figure I lost about 4 seconds of the game.
 
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I mostly use it at mom and pop stores, believe it or not, these places are the best places to use Apple pay as they have all the necessary equipment, thanks to that chip card thing. Most chip card readers take Apple Pay just fine, and mom and pop stores got terminals issued from the bank, generally free of charge.
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melman101 said:
You'd be surprised. I've been to places where they don't take cash. Card only. But that's very very very rare.

I'm trying to remember where that happened, but it's escaping me.
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Plenty of those here in Arizona, including my business, no checks either at my service business. Reason? I have been stiffed with fake bills, and bad checks, so this business decision just made things easier on me.

(Don't give me any of the legal mumbo jumbo either, the laws are on my side here, and that legal tender thing on the money just means businesses have to do business in US dollars, but by no means do I have to accept cash, look it up for yourself if people don't believe me :)).
 
dontwalkhand said:
I mostly use it at mom and pop stores, believe it or not, these places are the best places to use Apple pay as they have all the necessary equipment, thanks to that chip card thing. Most chip card readers take Apple Pay just fine, and mom and pop stores got terminals issued from the bank, generally free of charge.
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If that's the case, then why does my local mom and pop shop have an ancient reader with dial up communication? :confused:
 
Although it's not accepted everywhere, it's in a good chunk of places I frequent, and the in-app portion is even better (no credit card info on file with various businesses!). Looking at a few past statements, I've got a pretty reasonable list of businesses:

Stores (iPhone or Apple Watch):
Meijer (for both in the store and for gas...love the NFC readers on the pumps!)
Best Buy
Petco
Staples
Apple Store
Panera Bread
American Eagle Outfitters
Nike Store
McDonald's
Firehouse Subs
Jimmy John's
Trader Joe's
Pei Wei
Walgreens (although I rarely go there)
Jewel-Osco (when I was visiting family near Chicago and needed to buy an I-Pass)
AT&T (although Discover wasn't supported, which the 10% bonus was the whole reason for going instead of paying online)
T-Mobile
Home Depot (that was a few months ago - they turned off NFC to "fix" things)
A few small businesses that had NFC-capable readers

Apps (iPhone or iPad):
Starbucks
Dunkin Donuts
Groupon
Ticketmaster
Stubhub
Apple Store
Panera Bread (sometimes it's easier to order ahead for pickup)
Harry's
State Farm

The list isn't exhaustive and some places have only been a once-or-twice thing, but it's grown a lot in the last year or so, and I suspect we'll see it grow as more businesses get newer readers or relax their policies to allow NFC use in stores (cough Target cough).
 
I use it wherever and whenever I can. I'm disappointed more merchants do not accept it, and those who do are often untrained. Albertsons LLC (Shaws, Star Market, Acme Super-Valu, Albertsons, etc.) are still in the stone knives and bearskins stage - they require the last four digits of a credit card to complete a credit transaction, which translates to the last four of the DAN for Apple Pay. Some clerks have tried to insist on actually seeing the last four of the DAN, which is impossible on the Apple Watch, and one tried to tell me she needed to verify my signature. ("No, you don't, and this transaction has already completed. Look at your register.")

Whole Foods and Trader Joe's seem better trained and less surprised by someone waving their wrist at the payment pad.

But then, almost nobody is accepting chip-and-signature cards yet, either, despite the fact that this was supposed to happen by last October. (Why oh why can't they do chip-and-pin? My signature is worthless. Clerks aren't graphologists.)
 
I use it whenever I can, and prefer it to taking out my card. Especially considering that chip and pin/signature is a LOT slower, and it seems to trip up so many cashiers, further delaying the process. Having it on my watch makes it even more convenient. And I was able to rack up a couple hundred bucks in cash back bonuses through Discover last year, which was nice.

As for the nerdiness/geekiness factor, I don't make a big deal about it. I wait for the payment terminal to be ready to accept payment and I just double-press the button on my watch and, do it. It doesn't need to be a big production, and most of the time the cashiers don't bat an eye. When they do say anything, usually it's "wow, that was fast!" Considering that the chip cards are so annoyingly slow by comparison.

Where I physically use Apple Pay:

  • The company handling our eatery at work for lunch breaks now takes Apple Pay
  • All the vending machines accept it (useful for a ginger ale, hot chocolate or bottled water)
    Note: some vending machines don't take Discover through NFC for some reason, even thought they'll accept it by swiping. Weird.
  • Panera
  • Wegmans
  • Walgreens
  • CVS [EDIT: RiteAid, my bad]
  • Yeah, I do visit McDonalds now and then
  • Apple Store
  • Disney Store
  • T-Mobile

Apps:

  • Panera
  • Starbucks
  • Amazon
  • Apple Store
 
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You put CVS on your list. Have they really turned their NFC readers back on and started accepting Apple Pay?
 
Surprisingly, my local strip club takes apple pay. lol
only bad thing about that is i can't make it rain: you need dolla bills for that. lol
 
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nightcap965 said:
I use it wherever and whenever I can. I'm disappointed more merchants do not accept it, and those who do are often untrained. Albertsons LLC (Shaws, Star Market, Acme Super-Valu, Albertsons, etc.) are still in the stone knives and bearskins stage - they require the last four digits of a credit card to complete a credit transaction, which translates to the last four of the DAN for Apple Pay. Some clerks have tried to insist on actually seeing the last four of the DAN, which is impossible on the Apple Watch, and one tried to tell me she needed to verify my signature. ("No, you don't, and this transaction has already completed. Look at your register.")

Whole Foods and Trader Joe's seem better trained and less surprised by someone waving their wrist at the payment pad.

But then, almost nobody is accepting chip-and-signature cards yet, either, despite the fact that this was supposed to happen by last October. (Why oh why can't they do chip-and-pin? My signature is worthless. Clerks aren't graphologists.)
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The DAN for cards stored in your watch can be found in the ApplePay section of the Watch app on your iPhone. I had to find it once at a grocery store. Normally it's not needed at that chain but my purchase was over some threshold that required it....I think maybe $300. There's one gas station near me that requires a signature for ApplePay purchases even when I just buy a soda. They don't require it for swiped cards. I'm now trained to have the stylus ready to go and I always tell the clerk it's silly. I've had a few tell me "it's for security." Then I ask them what they're comparing my signature to....then they realize it's silly as well. I emailed the chain through their webpage and the response I got back was one of surprise, saying they didn't even know they took ApplePay! And this is a major gas station chain.
 
nightcap965 said:
I use it wherever and whenever I can. I'm disappointed more merchants do not accept it, and those who do are often untrained. Albertsons LLC (Shaws, Star Market, Acme Super-Valu, Albertsons, etc.) are still in the stone knives and bearskins stage - they require the last four digits of a credit card to complete a credit transaction, which translates to the last four of the DAN for Apple Pay. Some clerks have tried to insist on actually seeing the last four of the DAN, which is impossible on the Apple Watch, and one tried to tell me she needed to verify my signature. ("No, you don't, and this transaction has already completed. Look at your register.")

Whole Foods and Trader Joe's seem better trained and less surprised by someone waving their wrist at the payment pad.

But then, almost nobody is accepting chip-and-signature cards yet, either, despite the fact that this was supposed to happen by last October. (Why oh why can't they do chip-and-pin? My signature is worthless. Clerks aren't graphologists.)
Click to expand...

It used to work great at Albertsons. In the last month or two, they've started asking to see the last four digits on any transaction over $50. They're making it more trouble than it's worth. If they had a clue, they'd know Apple Pay is way more secure than swiping the magnetic strip card.
 
I usually use it at Wegmans, Walgreens, and Panera Bread. However I've used it at other places like Shop Rite (grocery store), Sleepys (mattress store), and Pei Wei.

Pretty much I use it wherever I can. It's convenient but still awkward for me. Years of muscle memory still have me grabbing at my wallet even while using ApplePay.
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duaneu said:
It used to work great at Albertsons. In the last month or two, they've started asking to see the last four digits on any transaction over $50. They're making it more trouble than it's worth. If they had a clue, they'd know Apple Pay is way more secure than swiping the magnetic strip card.
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This confuses me. What are they entering the last four digits into?

Doesn't the transaction go through without any thing else? Is the credit card company requesting that information or is the store? And if it's the store...what are they doing with people's credit card numbers?

I'd probably just walk if I used ApplePay and they were asking me for card information. Defeats the purpose.
 
cynics said:
I usually use it at Wegmans, Walgreens, and Panera Bread. However I've used it at other places like Shop Rite (grocery store), Sleepys (mattress store), and Pei Wei.

Pretty much I use it wherever I can. It's convenient but still awkward for me. Years of muscle memory still have me grabbing at my wallet even while using ApplePay.
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This confuses me. What are they entering the last four digits into?

Doesn't the transaction go through without any thing else? Is the credit card company requesting that information or is the store? And if it's the store...what are they doing with people's credit card numbers?

I'd probably just walk if I used ApplePay and they were asking me for card information. Defeats the purpose.
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I think the reason they check last 4 digits is as a quick check that the data on the magnetic stripe of a card matches the actual card. One of the ways fraud is committed is that criminals recode stolen credit card info onto the mag stripe of a different card. So they type in the last 4 digits to make sure it's the same as the last 4 digits received by the swipe.

It truly makes no sense to do this for an ApplePay transaction, but nobody bothered to program the terminal to skip this check if NFC is used as the payment method.
 
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dave420 said:
If your debit card has a chip I'm not sure if it is all that different.
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Depends, in the UK and pretty much everywhere outside the antique banking system used in the US, a chip card using a pin is pretty secure, in the US someone stealing your Chip card only needs to be able to forge your signature, just like cards with magnetic stripes. Apple Pay can only be used on an iphone that has fingerprint locking and authorisation so far more secure than a chip and pin card,Chip and signature is a joke!
 
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