How am I supposed to know what stores accept Apple Pay?

[zhenya]

If this has to be enabled at the individual bank level, the hurdle to wide acceptance is MUCH higher than I had thought. If your local bank card is routing its transactions through Visa/MC it should have been handled at that level. Why involve EVERY tiny regional bank and credit union in the country?

 

[JoeTomasone]

This is incorrect; lot's of stores have these terminals.

Apple Pay will only work if the store is an apple pay partner.

INCORRECT.

The "Apple Pay partners" have committed to supporting Apple Pay/NFC in all of their retail locations.

ANY merchant that accepts NFC payments should be able to accept Apple Pay.

However, your card must be issued by a participating BANK.


Now, not every retailer with NFC-capable terminals has NFC active. Best Buy, for example, disabled theirs. Wal-Mart and Best Buy are part of MCX, and plan to implement CurrentC, which will use bar codes, not NFC.

 

[12vElectronics]

So the merchant has to accept it and the card must be issued by a participating bank?

That's too much stuff to have to figure out just to pay for something on a daily basis.

 

[terraphantm]

So the merchant has to accept it and the card must be issued by a participating bank?

That's too much stuff to have to figure out just to pay for something on a daily basis.

Merchant has to accept contactless payments in general. They don't have to specifically make a deal with Apple. Many merchants in the US already do, and that number will likely go up pretty dramatically in the future as merchants are being required to switch to EMV payment systems by October 2015 (or else the merchant will be liable for fraudulent transactions).

The banks do have to support Apple Pay.

 

[12vElectronics]

Merchant has to accept contactless payments in general. They don't have to specifically make a deal with Apple. Many merchants in the US already do, and that number will likely go up pretty dramatically in the future as merchants are being required to switch to EMV payment systems by October 2015 (or else the merchant will be liable for fraudulent transactions).

The banks do have to support Apple Pay.

Where would one go to find out if their cc or debit card is supported?

 

[michael31986]

Apple Pay has different terms and conditions. That is what sucks about this NFC payment business, it's not really unified. Some places have NFC terminals, but only accept from certain cards or devices. Hopefuly Pay will change all fo this.

So like I was saying. Just because a store has nfc doesn't mean I can use my iPhone 6 to pay.

 

[Vegasryn]

Where would one go to find out if their cc or debit card is supported?

When you go to add your card to ApplePay when it gets released, it either is going to accept it or it isn't. If it does, then you can use it at ANY merchant that has NFC payments enabled. The ApplePay part is the extra security between Apple and the banks.

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So like I was saying. Just because a store has nfc doesn't mean I can use my iPhone 6 to pay.

Incorrect. If they accept NFC, and you were able to set up ApplePay (meaning your bank allows it) you can use your phone to pay

 

[simon48]

My God, what is with all the misinformation?

The merchant just needs to support NFC and should Apple Pay work with them! You need a Visa, Master Card or American Express card that was issued by a bank that supports Apple pay.

1. Use a bank that supports Apple pay

2. Get a card that supports Apple pay from your bank (you most likely already have one)

3. Go to a store that has NFC


That it!

 

[JoeTomasone]

If this has to be enabled at the individual bank level, the hurdle to wide acceptance is MUCH higher than I had thought. If your local bank card is routing its transactions through Visa/MC it should have been handled at that level. Why involve EVERY tiny regional bank and credit union in the country?

Security reasons.


The token that replaces your actual card card number for the transaction (the "Device Account Number") is known only to your iPhone and the issuing bank. Therefore, each bank has to not only sign up, but modify their back end processing to support it.

Logistical and acceptance issues aside, this is a good thing. CurrentC, by comparison, only tokenizes the data as far as the merchant, where your bank account data will be stored. These are the same stores that in 3 cases so far have public breaches; the banks thus far have a better record. Not spotless (see JP Morgan Chase), but not as many yet-publicized breaches. Further, having the data revealed only at the bank (at the end of the payment chain) limits the amount of potential intercept points that hackers can target.

So it's far from a seamless integration, to be sure, but at least it doesn't require the merchants to do much more than they should already be contemplating already, especially since most have to replace their existing terminals with EMV-capable terminals next year anyway.

I predict slow but steady adoption in the beginning as long as there aren't any vulnerabilities discovered in Apple Pay. If everything works well, expect more rapid adoption by banks and merchants. Some may be fence-sitting and waiting to see how it works, which isn't a particularly bad idea when you think about it.

 

[xraydoc]

INCORRECT.

The "Apple Pay partners" have committed to supporting Apple Pay/NFC in all of their retail locations.

ANY merchant that accepts NFC payments should be able to accept Apple Pay.

However, your card must be issued by a participating BANK.


Now, not every retailer with NFC-capable terminals has NFC active. Best Buy, for example, disabled theirs. Wal-Mart and Best Buy are part of MCX, and plan to implement CurrentC, which will use bar codes, not NFC.

Yep. Best Buy has NFC terminals at all of their locations near me and they've disabled all of them. I used to have both a Nexus 5 as well as an ATM/debit card with an NFC chip. Does not work at any BB location.

 

[BruiserB]

How am I supposed to know what stores accept Apple Pay?

This is incorrect; lot's of stores have these terminals.



Apple Pay will only work if the store is an apple pay partner.

Sorry, but you are incorrect. Go to www.apple.com/apple-pay/ Scroll down to "Use Apple Pay in these stores." You'll see several store logos. Below these it says "Look for this icon at checkout." This icon is the generic NFC payment icon....it's not an ApplePay icon. Notice that the VeriFone terminal in the picture the other person posted has that icon in the center of the individual card company logos. It was specifically pointed out in the Keynote that it would work anywhere displaying this icon...not just at featured merchants.

 

[uiop.]

This is incorrect; lot's of stores have these terminals.

Apple Pay will only work if the store is an apple pay partner.

I think we've established by now (5 pages later) that what I stated on the first page is actually correct.

 

[geoffm33]

My God, what is with all the misinformation?

The merchant just needs to support NFC and should Apple Pay work with them! You need a Visa, Master Card or American Express card that was issued by a bank that supports Apple pay.

1. Use a bank that supports Apple pay

2. Get a card that supports Apple pay from your bank (you most likely already have one)

3. Go to a store that has NFC and use Apple Pay with a card that the store accepts.


That it!

Slight change.

 

[diamond.g]

Security reasons.


The token that replaces your actual card card number for the transaction (the "Device Account Number") is known only to your iPhone and the issuing bank. Therefore, each bank has to not only sign up, but modify their back end processing to support it.

Logistical and acceptance issues aside, this is a good thing. CurrentC, by comparison, only tokenizes the data as far as the merchant, where your bank account data will be stored. These are the same stores that in 3 cases so far have public breaches; the banks thus far have a better record. Not spotless (see JP Morgan Chase), but not as many yet-publicized breaches. Further, having the data revealed only at the bank (at the end of the payment chain) limits the amount of potential intercept points that hackers can target.

So it's far from a seamless integration, to be sure, but at least it doesn't require the merchants to do much more than they should already be contemplating already, especially since most have to replace their existing terminals with EMV-capable terminals next year anyway.

I predict slow but steady adoption in the beginning as long as there aren't any vulnerabilities discovered in Apple Pay. If everything works well, expect more rapid adoption by banks and merchants. Some may be fence-sitting and waiting to see how it works, which isn't a particularly bad idea when you think about it.

Bolding done by me, this is the part that is tricky. EMV != NFC. So it is possible smaller retailers will only get readers that support EMV and not have NFC capabilities. In one of the other threads someone was talking about how it would be an extra 600USD for a reader that does NFC plus an additional monthly charge to support NFC on the back end.

 

[JoeTomasone]

Bolding done by me, this is the part that is tricky. EMV != NFC. So it is possible smaller retailers will only get readers that support EMV and not have NFC capabilities. In one of the other threads someone was talking about how it would be an extra 600USD for a reader that does NFC plus an additional monthly charge to support NFC on the back end.

Yeah, I didn't properly complete that thought; I meant to say that Apple Pay's timing is great since it is catching merchants when they need to refresh anyway... And who might just opt for NFC to be able to participate in Apple Pay. The more of a splash it makes, the more likely they will get NFC in addition to EMV.

 

[diamond.g]

Yeah, I didn't properly complete that thought; I meant to say that Apple Pay's timing is great since it is catching merchants when they need to refresh anyway... And who might just opt for NFC to be able to participate in Apple Pay. The more of a splash it makes, the more likely they will get NFC in addition to EMV.

That is all we can hope for (that it makes a bigger splash than iBeacon).

 

[JoeTomasone]

That is all we can hope for (that it makes a bigger splash than iBeacon).

iBeacon wasn't ever going to make a "splash" since it isn't an end-user technology, per se. Further, the tinfoil-hat crowd is scaring everyone into thinking that they are tracking you and reporting your location at all times to nefarious men-in-black... Which isn't even close to the truth, but the backlash against the technology persists.

</offtopic>

 

[diamond.g]

iBeacon wasn't ever going to make a "splash" since it isn't an end-user technology, per se. Further, the tinfoil-hat crowd is scaring everyone into thinking that they are tracking you and reporting your location at all times to nefarious men-in-black... Which isn't even close to the truth, but the backlash against the technology persists.

</offtopic>

True, but it was the future, NFC was so old school having to be right next to the register, etc.
I really hope Apple is able to make NFC payments popular enough that the softcard abomination will go away and carriers will give up on trying to get a piece of the digital wallet pie. I can dream...