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Its their choice..


Just because someone supports NFC doesn't mean they must support all NFC payments. And if they didn't, then it would be less than others who do,

BUT supporting some NFC is better than non at all anyway. AT least use something better like Google wallet...

Everyone wants to say their own system is better... that's the thing. they come back and say "oh ya, except we've been hacked."

so, not as good then.
 
You really felt awkward over five-ish seconds (btw I must have amazing aim because it never takes me that long)


Sometimes, when I'm in the drive through and the sun is in the wrong position, the clerk has trouble reading the code with the wireless scanner but I've never had a problem scanning the code with the scanners inside the stores.
 
So most customers don't have major credit cards...yet a significant number of people who don't have a credit card are going to have a smartphone? That fails the sniff test.

Not really. The amount of people without credit cards (and bank accounts) is a big market, including in developed countries such as the U.S. For years a lot of companies have been trying to monetize the unbanked/credit-challenged market with phone-based payment services.
 
Technically, the app will provide a short cut based on being inside the Starbucks in the lower left hand corner of your iPhone so you can quickly get to the card without your passcode (if set up like that). Also, you don't have to tell the worker, the scanner is set up for you to scan yourself. so...

1. flip open starbuck card in the passport app.
2. Scan yourself.
Done.

Also, the Starbucks card isn't connected to your bank account. You recharge it yourself so loss is limited to what you have on it. No potential to hack the system for your bank account number.

That's exactly how the Starbucks mobile payment system works, which is quite successful. Just saying. ;)
 
So most customers don't have major credit cards...yet a significant number of people who don't have a credit card are going to have a smartphone? That fails the sniff test.

i think the wording is confusing

he said most customers don't use credit cards at the stores.. not "don't have" (but that's not the deception(?) i mean to point out)

he's saying it in a way that implies 75% of all transactions are done via means which applePay can't do.. but you can use debit cards with apple pay and pretty much everybody has a debit card.

ie- he's not lying but he's made a clear difference between debit cards and credit cards.. but since applePay can use both and not just credit cards, it's a pretty irrelevant bit of information.


[edit]
for reference, the paragraph in question from the op

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, gift cards, and store cards, rather than with Visa, MasterCard, and American Express credit cards.
 
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...

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, gift cards, and store cards, rather than with Visa, MasterCard, and American Express credit cards.

...

If 75% of all purchases already avoid credit card fees, why waste all of the time, effort, and money developing CurrentC? If this is truly the case, then just allow the store loyalty and store gift cards to be entered in Passbook and call it a day.
 
when you buy something on credit, where does the money come from? do you think if you purchase something on credit that costs $100, the bank moves $100 from their account into yours or the sellers? they don't.. when you buy something on credit, the money is created out of thin air.. where does it get it's value? from all the rest of the money in circulation..

every time you buy something on credit, you make everybody else's dollar weaker. (inflation)

basically, take a loan from a bank, they create the money based on nothing (i.e.- they haven't created money, they've created currency).. now you're either left with paying back this currency based on nothing and further expected to add interest on top of it -or- default on the loan in which the bank will swoop in and grab the real asset.. biggest scam e v e r

Methinks you don't actually know how either bank loans or credit cards actually work.

When I buy using a Credit Card, the bank does pay the merchant. However, transactions are usually paid out in bulk every so many days. The whole reason for the APR in the first place is in part to recoup losses taken by not having the money present in order to make money from it in other ways.

Bank loans are the same way, cash is provided from the Bank's reserves. The gotcha here is that those reserves are usually money deposited in good faith by entities like businesses, and individuals. Banks are required to keep a certain percentage of their holdings in cash in order to pay for withdraws you make against your accounts, but otherwise, they are loaning out the money you put in your savings accounts. This is why a run on a bank can bankrupt it, or a series of bad loans that don't return the money back to the bank. Your balance with a bank is more of an "IOU" than it is a statement of how much cash they are holding in your name.

What you are discussing is specifically money growth due to inflation and lending of money to banks from the Federal Reserve, which does operate differently. Still, these things aren't strictly creating money out of thin air, except via inflation (the value of a security increases, so I can sell it to the Federal Reserve for more money, increasing the supply compared to what it would have been otherwise).

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johntharvey/2011/05/30/what-actually-causes-inflation/
 
I'm still stuck on the fact that they were already hacked before it even went live.....:eek:

Besides I do not want to be behind that person who have the qcode scanner app barried in pages of apps and they're they are taking forever swipping trying to find it and proceed to have it scan but wont because their screen is shattered or craked and that 90's scanner is not up to the task....well hopfully that will be limited to Walmart/rite aid customers only.... :p
 
One of the major privacy complaints about CurrentC centered around a requirement that users provide both a social security number and a driver's license when signing up. According to Rankin, this is only necessary for the pilot test, and he does "not expect to have those requirements" when CurrentC launches in early 2015.

Why do they need the SSN for the pilot test? Just to see if people would give it (maybe they found out that people did object).


75 percent of all purchases made at the 50 MCX merchants (including Walmart, Target, Lowe's, and more) are done with cash, debit cards, gift cards, and store cards, rather than with Visa, MasterCard, and American Express credit cards.

What?! Ha, that's not what I see in my area. Cash and checks are dead, rarely do people use them (rare enough I keep forgetting people will use either). I'd say it's 80-85%, maybe even 90%, some sort of plastic (and not gift cards though I'd venture to say that might vary between different type stores). And it seems about equal on plastic whether it is Credit or debit. Credit cards though most certainly do not only compromise 25% of purchases.

Also, I'll point this out, if credit is so little used, how come it has come to the point that even small grocery stores that really have a hard time eating that 2-3% fee still feel like they need to accept credit cards or lose too much business?
 
Unless, of course, the app simply uses Touch ID to authenticate the user.

Given that the main selling point is support for ancient smart phones, while TouchID support is possible (maybe even likely), it will only help out a sliver of CurrentC's audience (the sliver a half step away fro a far-superior system).
 
Technically, the app will provide a short cut based on being inside the Starbucks in the lower left hand corner of your iPhone so you can quickly get to the card without your passcode (if set up like that).
Actually, it's Passbook that provides this functionality. But since iOS 8 we also have the "suggested apps" feature based on location, which is designed precisely to bring up apps such payment apps on the lock screen based on location. They could even go really fancy and set up iBeacons at the registers to trigger the app.
Also, you don't have to tell the worker, the scanner is set up for you to scan yourself. so...
I suspect the MCX merchants will use a very similar setup.

----------

Given that the main selling point is support for ancient smart phones while TouchID support is possible (maybe even likely), it will only help out a sliver of CurrentC's audience (the sliver a half step away fro a far-superior system).
Well, the sliver that can use Apple Pay is even smaller (since it's not supported by the 5S).
 
I haven't read anything, but as a cashier at Target I call BS.

We strive for a 25% red card usage rate, and the majority of my guests use cards, and are switching the debit to credit.

And cash usage IS up... Because no one trusts ANYONE right now. I hear it my whole shift.

Ye gads.
 
I feel like listening to a politician. :rolleyes:

In the end, once Apple Pay adds loyalty card support (which may happen as early as iOS 8.2, likely coming in February 2015 to primarily add side-by-side app support on the iPad Air 2 and the rumored iPad Pro), that will be the end of CurrentC. CurrentC's complex process to make payments and the use of easily hackable optical QR codes is why expect a lot of companies to bail very soon.
 
Do as i say not as i do...

I'm sure that Mr. over payed COO will use CurrentC for the cameras but I'd be willing to bet almost every penny I have that his wife just finished ringing up her $800+ Whole Foods shopping list and checked out with her brand-new iPhone 6+ using Apple Pay :D:D:D:D:apple:
 
In the end, once Apple Pay adds loyalty card support (which may happen as early as iOS 8.2, likely coming in February 2015
If you mean NFC-based loyalty cards, that is highly unlikely. Apple Pay relies on existing payment card standards and infrastructure. There is no standard for NFC-based loyalty cards, and to my knowledge no merchant has the equipment and capability to accept such cards. In fact, the installation of more optical scanners by the MCX merchants will probably lead to more QR-based loyalty cards that can be stored in Passbook.
 
I think the CEO missed a couple steps that his own company is showing in the tutorials. According to the pictures, you have to use your phone to scan each item first using it's barcode or QR code, and then the store clerk scans your phone (with the QR code) for the payment.
 
Methinks you don't actually know how either bank loans or credit cards actually work.

When I buy using a Credit Card, the bank does pay the merchant. However, transactions are usually paid out in bulk every so many days. The whole reason for the APR in the first place is in part to recoup losses taken by not having the money present in order to make money from it in other ways.
not exactly sure what your point is or how it's explaining to me how bank loans or credit cards actually work..
from what i said, it doesn't matter if the payment happens immediately or in a year.
?

Bank loans are the same way, cash is provided from the Bank's reserves. The gotcha here is that those reserves are usually money deposited in good faith by entities like businesses, and individuals. Banks are required to keep a certain percentage of their holdings in cash in order to pay for withdraws you make against your accounts, but otherwise, they are loaning out the money you put in your savings accounts. This is why a run on a bank can bankrupt it, or a series of bad loans that don't return the money back to the bank. Your balance with a bank is more of an "IOU" than it is a statement of how much cash they are holding in your name.
it's a fractional reserve system:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional_reserve_banking

and yes, what you said is true (Banks are required to keep a certain percentage of their holdings in cash in order to pay for withdraws you make against your accounts)..
but what percentage are we talking here? further, what percentage is the federal reserve required to have in reserve prior to issuing loans?
(i'll refrain from giving the answers.. i'd rather you or others find them with your own research)

and no, a bank can't go bankrupt via a run.. not anymore.
for one, they don't hold any money, just currency

but two, they're backed/insured by the federal reserve.

What you are discussing is specifically money growth due to inflation and lending of money to banks from the Federal Reserve, which does operate differently. Still, these things aren't strictly creating money out of thin air, except via inflation (the value of a security increases, so I can sell it to the Federal Reserve for more money, increasing the supply compared to what it would have been otherwise).

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johntharvey/2011/05/30/what-actually-causes-inflation/
hmm.. no. inflation is just an effect or symptom of what i'm talking about.

and yes, the money really is being created out of thin air.. if you truly do know how money is created and you're saying 'money' is actually 'something' then please share.. i'm entirely open to learn about where our money comes from and i think everybody else should be too..

as far as i can gather so far though, 'money' is our- the general public's- lives.. that is the value
 
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...
You are a bad infomercial there.... IF that person does exist they need to kill themselves immediately so they don't screw up the gene pool.
Not sure it will be THAT bad but still think it's done before it starts. I use the app for starbucks and the red card at target but this some how feels.... dirty.
 
I haven't read anything, but as a cashier at Target I call BS.

We strive for a 25% red card usage rate, and the majority of my guests use cards, and are switching the debit to credit.

And cash usage IS up... Because no one trusts ANYONE right now. I hear it my whole shift.

Ye gads.

Cash usage is up because they don't trust the same people who right now are asking for much more of their financial info... Think they realize the irony in this ;-).
 
Cash usage is up because they don't trust the same people who right now are asking for much more of their financial info... Think they realize the irony in this ;-).

No, no they do not see the irony in this. Not at all.

Same people that think I can get 10% of my guests to sign up for a red card per shift too.

Maybe if we gave airline miles with them

Thankfully, only 3 more days working there!
 
If 75% of all purchases already avoid credit card fees, why waste all of the time, effort, and money developing CurrentC? If this is truly the case, then just allow the store loyalty and store gift cards to be entered in Passbook and call it a day.

This.

Also, it might be 75% of transactions, but what percentage of overall sales is on credit cards? This is the stat that really matters. People might be buying gum at Walmart with cash, but I bet the big ticket items are being bought with credit cards.

CurrentC/MCX has the smell of designed-by consultants/committee garbage. Apple Pay is going to murder them on user experience, one of Apple's core competencies.
 
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