You don't have Chip and PIN? So paying by card still involves signing a bit of paper??
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Several Retailers to Begin Testing Apple Pay Rival CurrentC
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
3 years and only testing in one US city? While Apple and Google are eating their lunch worldwide?
How about ObstinaC? Or LunaC?
And they want me to hand over my banking details? That would be IdioC on my part.
This is what happens when you have a product made solely for the merchants benefit. How about making it appealing to the consumer in some way? No credit cards? Really? Yeah, like most ppl really want to use their checking account to pay for things.
Ok, forget Apple Pay even exists. Same for Google/Samsung options. Even without those, who the hell would want to use this clunky mess of a system?!
This will really be doa, current c had the advantage of a few big retailers (target, Best Buy, ext.) being locked into an exclusive agreement not allowing them to accept other forms of mobile payment. A lot of these deals will expire within the next year allowing apple pay to swoop in.
Now now. I'm sure a roomful of ponytails spent several minutes riffing on a theme to come up with that gem.
Cutting out the credit providers could have have been a profitable goal, but these guys make the credit companies look benevolent.
Pay to pay for a few bottles of wine and "smally eats" at MORRISONs today.
It could have been a way of cutting out the credit fees, instead they found ways to make the card companies look benevolent.
Great post. Agree 100%. If Walmart and others think they can get around credit cards, they need to put their money where their mouth is. Stop accepting credit cards until you can negotiate a fee you do feel comfortable with.
I am guessing the credit card companies would win that match.
I have signed paper before at smaller, local establishments when using my card. There is always cash too. A younger colleague thought I was an old fogey for having a decent amount of cash in my wallet to change out or loan. They where paying people using an online payment system that allowed them to email/text the money to someone else.
The thing that's amused me with this whole "CurrentC" disaster from the very beginning is that these retailers that are involved aren't even pretending like there's any benefit to the consumer. It's like they all sat down to devise a payment system together, came up with everything that they wanted out of it, and then adjourned the meeting before they got to the part about why customers would want to use it.
What is the issue that is taking so long? I can't see how retailers are willing to deal with a company that is taking their sweet time. Do they only have 2 software/system engineers?
I don't have hard statistics regarding Amex here in Australia, but my personal experience is that while it's the least likely to be accepted between it, MasterCard and Visa, the bigger retailers tend to support it and as a result I can use my Amex for about 70 - 80% of my purchasing without incurring an additional surcharge. The notables are department stores and supermarkets which by and large support Amex, as do many online payment systems.
Smaller food chains can be a bit hit and miss. Those that do support it often require a 2% surcharge or something, at which point I use my MasterCard or pay in cash. That said, a lot of those smaller food outlets and coffee stores often don't accept any form of credit card payment or will also surcharge MasterCard and Visa payments too (or have a minimum spend).
As to why I use Amex at the places I can...my bank in AU lets me associate a MasterCard and Amex card with the one account but the Amex card rewards me with 2 - 3 times the number of points per a dollar spent. As a consumer I may as well use it since besides the extra rewards, it's no different to scanning my MasterCard and I'm not incurring any additional bank fees personally.
I was discussing this with a co worker two days ago and he also felt that the view that Amex isn't accepted anywhere here was greatly over exaggerated.
I can't wait to read the fine print. I bet they are going to track and sell the purchase and location data of anyone who downloads it.
Spot on. The payment processing industry (especially beyond the card companies that most people thing are the entirety of the industry) is extremely competitive. As most service offerings are essentially the same now, that competition is pushed mainly onto price.
I noticed my local mcdonalds recently has scanners set up at the checkouts. I can't imagine the need to scan anything. Maybe gift cards? I suppose this is for current c? although they weren't listed as one of the participating retailers.