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ExxonMobil Now Supports Apple Pay in 'Speedpass+' App
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I don't think they are NFC. The Speedpass system has been around for over 10 years, and I don't think NFC has been around that long.
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See my edit to post #100. It does not appear that Apple Pay will accept the ExxonMobil card as a form for payment. No problem, just set up you EM card separately from the in app Apple Pay option. You can then select either Apple Pay or your credit card when you start the app. More options are good!!
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Perhaps the following steps:
1) retrieve wallet
2) lock car and head inside petrol station
3) wait in line for people ahead of you to pay for their own petrol
4) pay by whatever method you choose (cash/card/Apple Pay)
5) return to car
People have short memories. In fact this still happens in a lot of places in the uk (I can't speak for the us) but using an app isn't exactly a major chore, if only because you don't have to queue - you're always first in your own line.
Also without considerable investment in infrastructure, you can no more easily implement Apple Pay in a chain of petrol stations than you could pay your kids pocket money by holding the phone to their head with your finger on Touch ID.
We generally carry fewer cards than people in the US. I have 1 personal debit card (which I use in 40% of cases), one joint debit card (50%), one business credit card (5%) and one personal credit card (5%). That's 4 PINs to remember. Some banks let you change the PIN at your convenience (but it's obviously less secure to have the same PIN). Not a big deal to remember (they are 4 digit PINs, although you can set more digits in some cases).
In restaurants in Europe, waiters bring a wireless (GPRS or Wifi) chip and PIN card reader to the table alongside the bill and you pay straight away. Oh and in most countries service is included in the price of each menu item (France) or automatically added at the end of the bill (UK) so we don't have to tip (you may want to leave a couple euros in cash is service was very good or more if the waiter really spent time recommending you food/wines but it's not mandatory). Transaction approval usually takes less than 5 seconds. And here in the UK, more and more chip and PIN card readers also accept contactless and Apple Pay (even beyond the £30 limit that applies to card based contactless payment). All very convenient.
At a typical US gas station, there's a credit card swiper built into the pump. You take the card out, swipe it, enter either your postal code or pin number (depending on whether it's a credit card or debit card), and that's it. The only time I need to deal with the worker at the station is if something is wrong with the pump and payments need to be made inside. This is a pretty rare occurrence.
As far as infrastructure investments go, it's worth pointing out that ExxonMobile's 2015 revenue was $268.88 billion.
On a slightly unrelated note, chip cards in the US only became legally obliged this year, and I've noticed that most of the chip readers I've dealt with at various retailers are *incredibly slow*, sometimes taking 20 seconds or more until I can remove my card. The process is slower than the old card swiping method. This only makes me want NFC payments that much more, and I suspect a few years of this slow chip nonsense is going to cause a lot more people to voice this opinion.
I suppose your technically right, but Apple Pay to me means holding my phone up with my thumb on the home button. Anything more than that, any task or step whatsoever, is not the service that was advertised and, perhaps more importantly, just isn't convenient enough to obviate credit cards.
Apple Pay has two modes. One uses the hardware in your phone to pay using your wallet. The other is an API to developers to use a credit card defined in your wallet.
Both add security to your transaction by using a temporary credit card number that cannot be reused.
Much more secure than swiping your plastic at the pump.
Both add security to your transaction by using a temporary credit card number that cannot be reused.
Much more secure than swiping your plastic at the pump.
Yep, I've found it very convenient as well when I am travelling in Europe. I've come to like the European system better than the current US system. We are moving in that direction, albeit slowly.
While I would prefer pins, it's likely going to be a while.
And your restaurant method makes perfect sense, but I see that as years away for Americas restaurants, since that suggests a huge investment of infrastructure, based on our habits. Customers do not want to be rushed, and a waiter would absolutely have to leave the payment system on the table for the customer to complete at his leisure. Also how are multiple splits to one check handled in the European method? It's not unusual for up to four cards to be run for one check. I think while I prefer service gratuity to be included, many in the US will fight that, and prefer control over ad dining that after the check has been processed and returned to the table for final consideration. While I have no doubt this will eventually move to the European model, it's going to take a very long time, during which a pin would be very inconvenient.
The problem is, using a credit card is not not nearly that simple. This is what Inusually go through:
Swipe card.
Select debit or credit.
Enter zip code if credit./Enter pin if debit (Sometimes I also have to enter my zip as well)
Press enter.
Choose whether I have an extra value card.
Press yes or no. (Enter that info if so)
Choose whether I want a receipt or not.
Press yes or no.
Wait for authorization.
(At this point if there's a problem with the pump, or some bit of information, I may be told to see the cashier)
Select fuel grade.
Pump.
I have to say, the Exxon app seems far more efficient.
The only downside to this is that Exxon is one of the most expensive gas providers in Southern California.
I like my solution better so far. I buy discounted EM gift cards from eBay's EM partner - $90 for a $100 card, no tax or shipping. Yes, gotta plan ahead a bit, but I generally buy 3-4 at a time (they're available at this writing) - that's about a 20 cent discount per gallon to feed my modded E550 or Foz XT premium fuel. If only I could add those EM gift cards to Apple Pay, now that would be nifty!
I had a very similar experience today; I've set the app to use ApplePay. Authorization took five to ten seconds and a receipt was available a few seconds after I shut of the pump.
I'm switching from Shell to Mobil so that I can use ApplePay at the pump (and I do know that it is an in-app purchase, not 'real' NFC ApplePay); a few months ago I stopped buying groceries at the store I'd used for years and switched to a competitor for the same reason...my new grocer does ApplePay and the old one doesn't.
If it hasn't been mentioned yet, be aware that not all ExxonMobil stations are set up to use the app. Of the five or six in my town, only one is currently able to process the transaction. In the app you can search for nearby stations, and at the top of the list are the Speedpass+ capable locations.
I think that Speedpass+ is a great example of thinking outside the box; I've blogged about this as it relates to software engineering.
That would be the right way to do it, but I suspect it will cost way more than $49 to make a custom design that will fit into existing Exxon Mobile gas pumps as well as installation (labor) cost.
Great blog post - it's always good to see faculty using real-world examples, especially if they're smaller cases that have potential for growth! There's a lot of people hating on ExxonMobil for not putting NFC at the pumps (yet?) and that this isn't real Apple Pay. Either way, in-app Apple Pay is still considered real Apple Pay (as far as Apple is concerned and marketing it as such), and I applaud ExxonMobil for offering this as an option (although the station close to where I work doesn't have it yet).
To be honest, I'd rather have something like this instead of nothing when old infrastructure is the problem. To me, this is not much different than using in-app Apple Pay to order ahead at Panera or ordering items for pickup at the Apple Store (granted, both have NFC readers, but it's still a viable and convenient option).
According to Fast Company's article, it will cost between $30,000 to $40,000 to upgrade or replace pumps on each station. I am guessing upgrade costs around $30,000 and replacement costs around $40,000, which suggests much of the cost is labor.
Why do you have to replace the entire pump to swap out the payment module?
There's still the matter of this kind of thing moving us in the direction of having a different app and different login for every merchant, which is the wrong way to go. Not only that, an app is how retailers like Target and Walmart are going to get around the anti-tracking feature of Apple Pay.
I tried it and it worked pretty well. Just 3 things were a bit disappointing.
1) I was at pump 17 at my station. The pump numbers didn't all fit on the screen and 17 was beyond the bottom. I didn't try to touch the screen to see if I could scroll it, because doing so would have likely authorized a different pump. So I hit the button that allowed me to use the QR Code.
2) My local Mobil franchise has its own loyalty program. I got it to work by swiping the loyalty card at the pump and then authorizing the payment in the app. The first time the pump timed out on my loyalty card swipe before I got the pump authorized due to the issue above. So I had to start over.
3) For some reason Discover cards still don't work for in app ApplePay. Gas is the current quarter's 5% Discover Cash Back promo (and my card is in the first year, so it's doubled to 10%), so I had to settle for a Visa card that gives 3% back.
1 & 2 will be better with practice and 3 will be irrelevant after the end of this month.
It is a cool way to implement this for gas stations. The other local stations that take ApplePay require inside payment so this beats that for convenience. I do hope eventually NFC can be implemented at station pumps but understand it will take time. I don't doubt Fast Company's cost estimates. In industry everything is way more expensive then you would guess. And it must be tested and secured. It's not just about duct taping a Square reader to each pump and calling it good!
1) I was at pump 17 at my station. The pump numbers didn't all fit on the screen and 17 was beyond the bottom. I didn't try to touch the screen to see if I could scroll it, because doing so would have likely authorized a different pump. So I hit the button that allowed me to use the QR Code.
2) My local Mobil franchise has its own loyalty program. I got it to work by swiping the loyalty card at the pump and then authorizing the payment in the app. The first time the pump timed out on my loyalty card swipe before I got the pump authorized due to the issue above. So I had to start over.
3) For some reason Discover cards still don't work for in app ApplePay. Gas is the current quarter's 5% Discover Cash Back promo (and my card is in the first year, so it's doubled to 10%), so I had to settle for a Visa card that gives 3% back.
1 & 2 will be better with practice and 3 will be irrelevant after the end of this month.
It is a cool way to implement this for gas stations. The other local stations that take ApplePay require inside payment so this beats that for convenience. I do hope eventually NFC can be implemented at station pumps but understand it will take time. I don't doubt Fast Company's cost estimates. In industry everything is way more expensive then you would guess. And it must be tested and secured. It's not just about duct taping a Square reader to each pump and calling it good!
Too bad a lot of retailers won't ever support Apple Pay in any manner other than that. If they even bother with an app, that is.
So CurrentC mk2, but with in app Apple Pay?
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I bought some ice cream with a picture of a happy kid on the front. Am I not allowed to eat it when sad? Or at all because I'm not a kid?
Minor note: chip cards are not required by any US law. The switch in liability was simply a business decision made by Visa and echoed by the other credit card entities.
That's why there hasn't been a huge rush to switch over to chip in many businesses.
I've been thinking about this. Usually we swipe quickly and put away our card, but then wait a little while for the actual confirmation to come back.
Perhaps a chip card authentication is close to the same time, but it's the fact that we have to wait with the card in the slot that makes it seem longer?
Minor note: when paying by NFC, the token credit card number doesn't change, but the cryptograms around it do.
Nay to you nay sayers.
I think this is very cool. The station I use has the cheapest gas in town, is convenient to me and I'm glad this rolled out.
This is much better than swiping your card and leaving your CC card info guarded by a piece of tape in a gas pump to be stolen.
This is a good thing. (can't wait to see if it actually works for me). The Speedpass+ app installed on my phone and let me register.
Yes, it would be better if it was direct, but the article stated that it would be big bucks to equip existing gas pumps to accept apple pay directly and Speedpass is already there.
I think this is very cool. The station I use has the cheapest gas in town, is convenient to me and I'm glad this rolled out.
This is much better than swiping your card and leaving your CC card info guarded by a piece of tape in a gas pump to be stolen.
This is a good thing. (can't wait to see if it actually works for me). The Speedpass+ app installed on my phone and let me register.
Yes, it would be better if it was direct, but the article stated that it would be big bucks to equip existing gas pumps to accept apple pay directly and Speedpass is already there.