MCX Postpones Rollout of Apple Pay Rival 'CurrentC'

[megfilmworks]

My biggest issue wth chip and PIN in the U.S. is not the speed,
they have updated the software at the terminals making it almost as fast as swipe and PIN,
it's that it is easy to leave your card in the chip reader, and it's not contactless like Apple Pay...

 

[American Hero]

My biggest issue wth chip and PIN in the U.S. is not the speed,
they have updated the software at the terminals making it almost as fast as swipe and PIN,
it's that it is easy to leave your card in the chip reader, and it's not contactless like Apple Pay...

Chase had "blink" contactless cards... But they were discontinued in 2014.

Key Bank had "paypass" contactless cards, up until they began placing EMV chips in them, and then they took the RFID chip out.

Citi used to have contactless cards, but then discontinued them.

HSBC and American Express have the only contactless cards in America.

Why the trend? American merchants whine about spending money on everything, and fat grandma was unable to understand or use a contactless card. While most other 1st world countries, if not all, use contactless almost everywhere, Americans are not the brightest people in the world. Everything in America has to be dummy-proofed.

The banks should give the option to those of us with a brain to request chip + pin + contactless cards, while the rest of the people out there who go "huh? huh? oh no!!" get ones that are made for 1995.

Sometimes I wish the banks would give out chip + pin + contactless cards and charge everyone else $20 (per card) for one without all of that technology.

 

[Mac 128]

My biggest issue wth chip and PIN in the U.S. is not the speed,
they have updated the software at the terminals making it almost as fast as swipe and PIN,
it's that it is easy to leave your card in the chip reader, and it's not contactless like Apple Pay...

Maybe for you. I can tell you at most stores I shop at in LA which have turned on chip readers, that the transactions are excruciatingly slow and convoluted, as well as all that other stuff.

 

[AsherN]

I have never seen anyone leave their card in the reader. Probably because it's now second nature, and also because the transaction won't complete and the receipt will not print if you don't remove the card. Much like my bank's ATM will not dispense the cash until I have removed my card, and won't print the receipt until I have taken my cash.

 

[curmudgeonette]

Personally, I'd hate to have to tell my wife that she's got to remember another PIN

Signature is easier to remember, just as quick, and treats you less like a potential card thief.

Except that "signature" is all about protecting the banks against fraud by the card owner, i.e. you! Lets say that card owner calls in to dispute a charge: The bank can compare the signature on that transaction with previous signatures. If they are the same, the card owner is likely making a fraudulent claim.

 

[AsherN]

Good luck with that. Most people don't sign the same way everytime. It's easier to dispute a signature than a PIN transaction.

 

[vkd]

If you are talking about ApplePay taking nibbles out of merchants income causing raised prices, you are ignorant. AP takes its bite out of the bank's transaction fee income.

Will the overall price increase, or will the banks willingly succumb to AP reducing their accustomed income, which overall will amount to millions and in the longer term billions?

 

[AsherN]

In the US, the banks were willing to pay the fee to Apple because of the reduction in fraud. it ws harder in other countries because the instances of card present fraud is much less due to the widespread adoption of chip-and-pin an NFC. In the end, a lower fee was negotiated because the banks felt that the addition of Apple Pay would benefit their image.

 

[CelestialToys]

That's just silly. Chip cards are demonstrably MUCH slower than swipe, and that's without adding a PIN. With a PIN, I would say it's on the order of 10-20x slower. I have used chip & PIN throughout Europe and seen it attempted at Target in the US, with disastrous results (in terms of wasted time). Here's the difference between Europe and USA: Europe is still a quaint little place that operates at a pace and volume an order of magnitude slower than the US. Chip and PIN is fine at a local pub in England, a quaint restaurant in old town Prague, or a drugstore in Paris. It doesn't, however, work at a US megastore like Target, which does in one hour the volume of transactions that any of those places do in a week. Chip & PIN just doesn't scale to US consumerism. At least not without a lot of pain. Europeans tolerate chip & PIN because they plan to sit and sip wine and chat for 2 hours at the restaurant after dinner - while in America, the Cheesecake Factory wants to process you and get you out the door FAST to make more revenue off that table. Same with retail store purchases. More speed = more revenue. We buy stuff as fast as they can sell it.

I'm sorry but you're just wrong. The only thing that makes chip and pin slower than swipe and sign or swipe and pin is the customer....now this caused a few holdups when first introduced but us quaint Europeans got used to it pretty quickly. These days the only holdups are caused when Americans visit and try to use their quaint old swipe and sign cards with our modern technology ;-) Besides we've mostly moved on to contactless cards these days anyway.
Just a bit of further advice should you return to Europe, it's considered bad form to try and pay by card in a local pub in England, cash is the correct method of payment for a pint of ale.

 

[satcomer]

Chip and card in the USA is being rolled out hap hardly and chip paying requires new terminals and with old terminals is takes longer than the old swipe terminals!

 

[AZhappyjack]

Chip and card in the USA is being rolled out hap hardly and chip paying requires new terminals and with old terminals is takes longer than the old swipe terminals!

I've been saying that from the beginning - chip and pin is significantly slower that the swipe cards. Yesterday I got behind some guy at Home Depot who was using a C&P credit card... after the cashier was done ringing up his items and told him the total, it literally took over 3 minutes for the transaction to go through. (Yes, I timed it on my Watch.)

At least it wasn't that CurrentC system - we might still be in line,

 

[Mac 128]

I've been saying that from the beginning - chip and pin is significantly slower that the swipe cards. Yesterday I got behind some guy at Home Depot who was using a C&P credit card... after the cashier was done ringing up his items and told him the total, it literally took over 3 minutes for the transaction to go through. (Yes, I timed it on my Watch.)

At least it wasn't that CurrentC system - we might still be in line,

Didn't Home Depot originally take Pay? I went in he other day with just my phone (leaving my wallet in the car), and had to go back out to get my card. That said, the chip transaction was one of the faster ones I've encountered in Los Angeles, no where near 3 minutes. What I've found is that the experience seems to be determined by the data services provider. Many stores are trying to integrate their prexisting system with chip, and others replace the whole thing. Even if they are using the same terminals and software in LA as they are in Boston, the local network provider, and verification system may be slowing things up as well. So there's a lot of factors.

 

[satcomer]

Didn't Home Depot originally take Pay? I went in he other day with just my phone (leaving my wallet in the car), and had to go back out to get my card. That said, the chip transaction was one of the faster ones I've encountered in Los Angeles, no where near 3 minutes. What I've found is that the experience seems to be determined by the data services provider. Many stores are trying to integrate their prexisting system with chip, and others replace the whole thing. Even if they are using the same terminals and software in LA as they are in Boston, the local network provider, and verification system may be slowing things up as well. So there's a lot of factors.

Get out your city and shop a little!

 

[tmiw]

Get out your city and shop a little!

He's not wrong. I've seen chip transactions only take 1-2 seconds before.

 

[satcomer]

He's not wrong. I've seen chip transactions only take 1-2 seconds before.

What you suburnites don't see that outside the cities small business don't have chip readers and high speed Internet isn't really fast in most business.

 

[tmiw]

What you suburnites don't see that outside the cities small business don't have chip readers and high speed Internet isn't really fast in most business.

Most small businesses don't have chip readers in bigger cities (yet) either. And some use dialup even when there is faster available. Still doesn't disprove the "it depends" point that was originally made.

 

[bniu]

Good luck with that. Most people don't sign the same way everytime. It's easier to dispute a signature than a PIN transaction.

Yup, I never sign the back of my cards and for ID, I just present my Global Entry card, which has no signature on it. Every now and then, you get a clerk who demands to see ID with a signature on it, and I have to point out to them the whole point of checking ID makes signature matching redundant. Even I don't sign the same way each time, sometimes, they don't even look similar. Perhaps the signature thing is more a relic from the 18th century when people paid more attention to how they signed?