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During the call, MCX CEO Dekkers Davidson and COO Scott Rankin clarified that MCX merchants who choose to accept Apple Pay are not subject to fines. As stated in the blog post earlier today, merchants are also free to leave the consortium entirely at any time without penalty beyond forfeiting the time and money already invested in the effort.

This is still not a clear statement -- and I have a feeling the public ambiguity is very much intentional on MCX's part. This appears to be one shady group of people. And they want my bank account number and social security number? Not a chance in hell.

If the MCX merchants can choose to accept Apple Pay without being subject to fines, why did CVS and Rite Aid turn off the NFC functionality months before the CurrentC system is ready? That doesn't make any logical sense. They're still allowing customers to swipe plastic so there is ZERO reason not to turn NFC back on. The transaction fees are the same using NFC vs. swiping plastic.
 
I wonder how long before they cave in?

Why in 2014 is anyone still using cash??! I haven't used anything but plastic for years and fortunately in the UK we've had chip and pin and NFC for small payments for years now and we've much more secure and safe.

Personally I use a combination depending on the circumstances and it's always good to carry at least some cash just in case (look up e.g. Natwest).

I find it funny that you're able to get through life never using cash since I regularly use services where I have to use cash (or it's just easier).
 
:apple:Pay vs CurrentC is all a moot point until :apple:pay allows more that 6 banks Debit/credit cards to work.

I've been using Google wallet for 2 years and my cards have all worked since day 1

On a side note. Based on experience 90% of the problems you experience using touch-less payment methods whether you are using :apple:pay are Google Wallet or with the cashier not pressing the right button on the register
 
Your status quo is bad because it's the status quo. The status quo should be us, then everything would be great even though there would still be a status quo.


derp
 
Doing what is best for the customers is allowing both systems to coexist, and to let the customer choose the superior service.

Not excluding one for your personal gain.

F any retailer that participates.
 
A different angle

I have another idea for this whole mess...

Ignore it.

Here at MacRumors we have people who care about their smart devices in a way I truly believe does not reflect the majority. I'll spend time setting up my iPhone as new here and there just because I want to clean it up, or I'll offload my photos for storage (etc.) but I encounter way more people who just want their smart device to work simply and not put a ton of thought into it.

Consider the aforementioned mentality and combine that with CurrentC... People are not gonna take the time, that is why Apple Pay will succeed, it's intuitive, fast, secure, and merges well into an existing system that people are comfortable with. And I'd rather let this "attempt" at a mobile payment solution fade into oblivion. And that fading process will be faster if it is ignored. I'm not gonna bring it up at Thanksgiving, or when I see family, or Christmas... just gonna let the masses skip over something they don't care about. These retailers will wait to see if their investment paid off come '15 and they will see it's not and jump ship. Simple as that.
 
This is still not a clear statement -- and I have a feeling the public ambiguity is very much intentional on MCX's part. This appears to be one shady group of people. And they want my bank account number and social security number? Not a chance in hell.

If the MCX merchants can choose to accept Apple Pay without being subject to fines, why did CVS and Rite Aid turn off the NFC functionality months before the CurrentC system is ready? That doesn't make any logical sense. They're still allowing customers to swipe plastic so there is ZERO reason not to turn NFC back on. The transaction fees are the same using NFC vs. swiping plastic.

I think no one really used it before, and they panicked. Google Wallet was probably not a big enough use of NFC. But now they had 4 or 5 people a day using Apple Pay (plus a lot of media attention over Apple Pay). In fact, they probably didn't realize people could use Apple Pay if just NFC was working. So Executives panicked and didn't think it through or got bad advice from internal legal and/or marketing staff.
 
It's comforting to know that these huge corporations are only doing this because they know what their customers want and are looking out for us. How thoughtful.
 
Why do consumers want any of this crap?

In what way is the privacy breaching junk good for consumers? Why would anyone use currentc or aPay over cash?

I never use cash. I use my credit: card for nearly everything since its a secure and insured way to buy things. I love the idea of apple pay because it allows me to carry fewer cards on me and gives an extra layer of security at the same time. Obviously Apple pay won't fully replace credit cards (anytime soon) but it's convienant and safe.

Cash is probably the best way to pay if you're concerned about privacy but I don't want to deal with carrying cash all the time and having to deal with using ATMs when I want to buy things that I don't have enough cash on hand for.
 
So I wonder, since their exclusivity deals block ApplePay/Google Wallet/any other NFC mobile payments, what's keeping Apple, Google and Microsoft from just denying their app entry into their app stores? Would that open them up to lawsuit for anticompetitive behavior? It seems like that street could run both ways.

1) By keeping the app up, Apple appears to be taking the high road.

2) The >99% 1-star customer reviews of the app are sweet justice.

It's really a no-brainer for Apple.
 
That paragraph makes NO sense. If CurrentC was already in place, maybe…but how does denying Google Wallet and ApplePay, with no alternative, showing they are making choices that are right for their customers???


Their attitude is 'Our customers are too stupid to know what's best for them. They should all just shut up and do what we tell them to do.'
 
I think I'm about to play a little game where every time there's a story about CurrentC/MCX on MR, I will go to a merchant that accepts NFC payments and use Apple Pay.

It looks like I've got three Apple Pay transactions to make based on today's stories so far. Who's in?
 
MCX could have just kept working on its system and rolled it out when it was ready, offered incentives for customers to sign up. Starting a war by trying to ban other payment systems was not a good strategy, especially when they're not even ready to launch any time soon. If they really cared about customers, they'd let them choose how they want to pay.
 
Yeah I know Walmart is behind MCX, but they don't even have the NFC terminals yet (at least none that I'm aware of).

Actually most (all?) Walmarts have NFC terminals. However none of them are activated.

To their credit, they were one of the first to install chip readers. When I swipe my chip Citibank card, the terminal says to use the chip reader. Almost all chip reader terminals have NFC capability. You just have to turn it on.
 
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