MCX Executive: Social Security Number Won't Be Required, Most Customers Don't Use Major Credit Cards

[jettredmont]

Still doesn't change the fact that this system is designed to largely solve the retailers' problem with CC companies and not to make paying easier for customers.

The "theory" is that the retailers will trickle the savings down to their consumers. They pay 2.5-3.5% on credit card purchases, so everyone making a $10 purchase with CurrentC will save them (excluding MCX mafia payments, which will eventually become quite significant when there is only one company to provide this service rather than three major and four or five minor providers as is the case for credit cards) $0.25. That can be kicked back to the customer via a $0.10 coupon on specific weekly deals!

Trickle down economics has always worked out just great for the schlub at the bottom being pissed on.

 

[hybrid_x]

Wow. MCX is in FULL-ON damage control mode, and they haven't even launched yet. This is shaping up to be a failure of spectacular proportions.

Why don't they just come out and say that they don't give a rat's ass about user/customer experience, because it hasn't actually been designed with customers in mind at all.

If they're allowing it to be used with major credit cards, doesn't that sort of undermine the whole point of companies like Wal-Mart getting behind its development, so they can screw Visa and MasterCard? If people are already paying with cash, debit cards and gift cards, why do they need an electronic wallet at all?

 

[teknikal90]

Apple pay will have nothing to do with this failing, even if it had no competition it has so many problems and will fail on its own merits.

'nothing'?
that's overreaching.
no system will be perfect right out the gate.
but apple pay did do a better job, with a bigger launch, a few months earlier.

im not saying MCX would have been successful, but apple pay sealed its fate early.

sucks to be them.

 

[bobr1952]

Listen guys it's very simple:

1. Download the app
2. Add your checking account number
3. Verify with your bank
4. Everything gets messed up and you need customer service
5. Everything gets fixed the following week.
6. Go back to the store and try again
7. Tell the cashier you want to use "CurrentC"
8. Cashier gets confused because they think you're an idiot, of course the customer is going to use currency...
9. Explain to the cashier that no, "CurrentC" is a new app where you need to have her use that scanner from 1991 to scan your phone from 2014 to reach into your bank account and grab your money.
10. Then you can walk away happy that CVS not only knows you just bought tampons for your wife, but where you bought it, and what your heart rate was when you bought it.


Cmon guys, it's frictionless...

Or use Apple Pay tied to your credit card and let the cc company sort it out.

 

[Rigby]

Touche But I still don't understand it. I tried it a couple of times at Starbucks when it first launched and lining up your phone with their scanner is awkward, and you really start feeling embarrassed after five-ish seconds of waiting for it to scan, particularly when I could have just handed them the card.

Starbucks is the only retail loyalty program I'm a member of, mostly because of the app and of course the generous "star" rewards (which are roughly equivalent to a 10% discount). I find it very convenient and at least as fast as handing over my card. Plus, one less card I need to stuff into my wallet.

 

[hudson1]

Purchasing with CurrentC should be cheaper, right? I mean they are cutting out the CC fees, so they should be able to pass that savings on to the customer, right?

Yeah, right.

They don't give a discount for cash, either, so we shouldn't hold them to an unreasonable expectation on this one.

 

[fallenjt]

I wouldn't be surprised if most Walmart shoppers didn't use credit cards but Lowes and even Target, I'm skeptical.

Walmart is the store for illegal aliens. Cash will do...

 

[noobinator]

What are the odds CurrentC never even launches and goes down in a burning heap soon?

 

[cppguy]

The fact that you need to launch an app and hold it steady means it's not going to work for the blind, the old, and those with shaky hands. I don't know what this guys is thinking, he has to try Apple Pay before opening his mouth.

 

[hudson1]

This totally negates one of the main selling points of this system to merchants who bought into the system -- to allow merchants to sidestep credit card transaction fees.

I think MCX sold their system to merchants as being ACH only until Apple Pay was released and MCX is now backtracking on that and trying to portray the system as credit card friendly in the hopes that it will gain traction once it's released. Fat chance.

These merchants made a 500k investment in a subpar product in the hopes that they could sidestep credit card processor fees. The product was sold to them by some obviously shady people who engage in double-talk whenever they release a statement to the press. The merchants might as well own up to their half a million dollar mistake and pull out of the consortium.

I think retailers biggest motivation for MCX is sometime next year (October?), THEY will be held responsible for fraudulent credit card usage if they didn't deploy a higher security system than is commonly used today. MCX might be, in their eyes, that solution regardless if it's what consumers are dying to use or not.

 

[elvisimprsntr]

Instead of posting opinions of MCX, how about everyone sign the petition to have the DoJ investigate MCX?

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/pe...ing-anti-competitive-collusion-among/Ms9VCP9y

Order a DOJ investigation of Merchant Commerce Exchange for facilitating anti-competitive collusion among merchants.

Merchant Commerce Exchange (MCX) describes itself as the "only merchant-owned mobile commerce network" (see mcx.com). The website shows otherwise competing merchants participating in MCX, including: Walmart, K-Mart, Target and Best Buy as well as Rite-Aid and CVS.

MCX merchants are acting together as a union against banks and payment processors (e.g.: Visa and MasterCard) to promote the exclusive use of their own CurrentC mobile payment solution over more secure NFC-based systems. However, in a fair market economy, competing merchants should not be allowed to collude in this way to manipulate the price of electronic transactions.

It is no different than if eBook sellers colluded to refuse a specific publisher to drive down prices. That would be illegal. The DOJ should investigate MCX

 

[nagromme]

The MCX CurrentC transaction process really concerns me:

1. You find the app, launch it, enter a PIN code, press a button on the register pad, and then tap Pay on your phone.

2. Then you scan a QR code with your camera, or generate your own code for the cashier to scan, and wait for it to process.

3. The system generates an automatic MacRumors article about MCX and CurrentC.

4. Lastly, you select an account from a list and press Pay Now.

 

[jettredmont]

Let me reformat the payment process as Rankin describes it:

1. you say you want to pay via mobile,
2. "You pull out the phone,
3. (unlock your phone with PIN or Touch ID, a step Rankin omits here)
4. open the app,
5. click pay and a QR code is displayed.
6. She scans it

There is no step 7! "It's frictionless."

Well, there is 4.5 - Unlock the app itself with another PIN, which Rankin also omits (if that isn't there, it seems this is going to be an INCREDIBLY insecure system for the older-phone market MCX is targeting with its "no NFC required" approach).

There is also 5.5 - you fumble with the phone while the cashier fumbles with the scanner trying to get the two to line up.

I've dealt with QR-based "mobile coupons" quite frequently. They are a pain in the ass. I can't imagine wanting to do that for routine payments where I'm not getting an immediate substantial discount.

 

[PowerBook-G5]

Excuse my ignorance, but isn't this essentially an overly-complicated debit card? If so, is it that hard to carry an extremely thin and light piece of plastic? They even make cases that can hold credit cards, if you are totally anti-wallet.

If I am incorrect (about it being a debit card!), feel free to flame me.

 

[rsocal]

Pull out your phone, unlock it, swipe 50 times to get to the screen that has the app icon, click on the app icon, wait for it to load, wait for the QR code to be received, turn phone to the cashier, wait for the cashier to pull out the hand scanner, wait for cashier to scan the QR code about 50 times until the scanner registers it properly, wait for the transaction to process because the cash register is running Windows 95 with a dialup modem, wait for the printing of the confirmation receipt, and then run like F***K out of the store because the 30 people in line behind you are giving you evil glances and talking about shoving the phone down your throat.

Any retailer or "executive" thinking this is better than tapping a phone against a wireless terminal is in absolute denial.

Also most customers do not use major credit cards, when was the last time he was in the US, the land where people have many credit cards that are perpetually maxed out?

Funny and true!

 

[Blue Fox]

Too many steps for processing. This makes checkout LONGER. This will not take off.

I've used Apple Pay a dozen times over the past weekend. You don't even need to turn on the phone. Just hold your finger on the home button, hold it close to NFC and it goes through almost instantly. THAT is how you do it, not multi step compared to a credit card.

 

[jettredmont]

Some of the issues I have with the MCX Executive:
he does "not expect to have those requirements" when CurrentC launches in early 2015
He is not saying that Social Security numbers won't be required but he doesn't EXPECT it?? How at this point is he not sure whether or not they will require it.

Finally, Rankin once again addressed the exclusivity agreements that bind all MCX members, stating that exclusivity terms are "closer to months than years."
From all the reports the members of MCX joined in 2012 so if the exclusivity terms are closer to months than years than the exclusivity would of expired by now.

More importantly: if you don't require the SSN to link to a random person's bank account via ACH, which is routinely required today, how are you going to pay for the inevitable fraud which occurs taking advantage of this identify-freen ACH association? You can't just leave it at the bilked customer's feet because they aren't even necessarily a customer of yours, just a random dude whose driver's license and bank account information were known. Smells like an expensive class action lawsuit where banking customers get bilked and lawyers get rich. I'd expect/demand my bank to refuse such low-security ACH links.

 

[scottwaugh]

For CurrentC, its a total fail against the existing option for most of its customers (debit and credit cards) - which offer protection and a much quicker/easier experience.

Unless you offer a much better experience appleay) people just won't do it for the most part and that is exactly the experience where these guys have lined themselves up.

In the mean time I'll avoid the member merchants as much as possible.

 

[zhenya]

This company thinks that kind of double-speak, questionable claims and hedged assurances is going to change people's minds? If they want to have any chance of making it to launch they need a PR firm, stat!

'We don't expect to need your social security number?"

He might as well have said "We won't need it" regardless of the current reasons because they'll never launch needing it after the press they've gotten.

As for paying via app, forget it. It's already awkward enough paying via Apple pay if you aren't sure it's going to be accepted. You're going to ask the cashier to 'pay by mobile' adding a bunch of steps to the process? Keep dreaming.

The nail in their coffin is that ApplePay actually does make even a simple credit card transaction somehow even easier, and there is no way Apple will open up that NFC chip now.

CurrentC is done.

 

[jettredmont]

As a proud owner of a beautiful new iPhone 6, who spent some of this morning scanning in credit cards, I can say this: NFC-only methods do not work with iPhone 5S, 5C, 4S, etc. MCX will work with these.

Yes, when it comes out mid-2015 it will provide support for 2013 model year phones. That will be the maximum utility of not requiring NFC; two years later and it is much less significant; another two years and it is a non-issue (not because some 5s will no longer be out there, but because CurrentC is no doubt not going to continue supporting it because that increases their development costs).

 

[centauratlas]

If you go to places like this:
https://www.facebook.com/publix

And ask if they will accept Apple Pay, it will help get the ball rolling at more places.

 

[djeternal2]

Credit Card Fees?

So these MCX companies are complaining about the credit card fees of 2.5-3.5%, right?

But normally a lot of these retailers sell their products with the prices already adjusted to take that into aspect, regardless if you pay by cash or card.

To me this sounds like a lame excuse.

 

[palmerc]

One small issue...

The issue seems to be the lack of a proper, universally accepted, digital transfer system. Kind of like checks, or check cards, but (near) real-time and secure. In the US, there is a major problem with security, in terms of the credit card system and checking accounts. That is why credit cards make more sense today.

In Europe it is typical to have a near realtime, or same day wire transfer system. This is kind of like debit cards in the US, but this system or systems allow people to not just pay retailers but to pay bills and other individuals with cash. So you could look at a chip card and PIN payment at a retailer as setting up a wire transfer to the retailer in exchange for goods.

It seems that the real problem is the underlying payment system in the US is anachronistic. There needs to be an initiative by government and industry to wipe out checking and make digital payments universal. They also need to move away from signatures as proof of anything whether it be checks or credit cards. All but the most trivial transactions should require chip and PIN and for online 2-factor authentication of some form.

With this in place Google Wallet, Apple Pay just make the transaction a little bit safer, cooler and easier.

 

[tdar]

.






Another issue has been CurrentC's ability to link to a customer's bank account, allowing merchants to avoid paying costly credit card fees, a feature Rankin says is actually based on customer preference. 75 percent of all purchases made at the 50 MCX merchants (including Walmart, Target, Lowe's, and more) are done with cash, debit cards, and gift cards, rather than with Visa, MasterCard, and American Express credit cards.

Ask yourself this: are they really going to go through all of this to reduce fees on CC transactions if they are only on 25% of the business?

 

[ghostface147]

I think all mobile payment options are weak. Apple pay doesn't include rewards or coupons I may use at Walgreens. CurrentC doesn't allow competition and Google wallet has similar issues with loyalty cards and such. Make them all compete with each other with no restrictions and let the consumer sort it out.

Plastic isn't going anywhere for a very very long time.