'Walmart Pay' Expands Nationwide as Apple Pay Holdout Continues [Updated]

[Robert.Walter]

"Four people were arrested after a 30-person brawl erupted at a New York Wal-Mart, allegedly over an insult about a woman's dress, authorities said..."

Target (not Target) customers?

 

[Sigspd]

I don't mind Walmart pay, but as I get more and more concerned about my privacy, I am not sure I like companies tracking my every purchase. I don't use the savings catcher because I don't think they need to know what I buy regularly, nor do I want to provide them with information they can use to sell and make money.

I use apple pay to keep my privacy. I even don't allow websites to follow my clicks recently because of the fact I got tired of ads on different pages for something that I looked at earlier in the day or beginning of the week.

 

[DMR2016]

I'm not saying I wouldn't love them to get ApplePay. ApplePay takes more than "less than a second" so we are talking maybe a 3 second difference in the two, but that's beside the point. Of course ApplePay would be the better alternative. Heck, if Apple built a magnetic strip in their phones like Samsung, that would be a better alternative. But I don't see any of that happening anytime soon.

When you think of it from a logistical standpoint, it makes perfect sense as to why Walmart doesn't accept ApplePay. Why would a company with 5,000+ stores change out all of their card readers(average of 25 per store) just to appease a small percentage of its customers that want to use NFC payments? And what money would that save them on a per swipe basis? Absolutely none.

So they developed an alternative. And as my original comment stated, I believe its the best possible alternative ANY 3rd party app could come up with using both TouchID and 3D Touch. Oh, and Walmart used its stores existing card readers, and the only cost other than development is 3-4 extra seconds on the customer end. While at the same time, they're acquiring customer-specific spending data. So it pays dividends at almost no cost to them.

Did you not read the article? Most Walmart stores already have NFC capable payment terminals as it's built into 99% of terminals with chip and pin readers already. So it's absolutely pointless to just keep them off just for the sake of being anti-NFC payments. I live in the middle of nowhere around towns of 9,000 or less and we even have Walmart's with NFC terminals off. Even Walmart's internationally have NFC capable payment terminals and some even have turned NFC on, on them even though they aren't suppose to.
NFC Payments don't only benefit Apple either. It benefits all mobile payment companies. Samsung, Google, Apple, etc. As well as consumers not having to bother with the chip/pin hassle. Having to take 15-20 seconds or more to pay for something.

Also magnetic stripes arent built into a Samsung phone. It just uses the electrical impulses already in the phone to replicate the magnetic swipe of a card. Which is an outdated insecure technology. That's why chip and pin and NFC payments are a thing.

 

[newyorkone]

I don't mind Walmart pay, but as I get more and more concerned about my privacy, I am not sure I like companies tracking my every purchase. I don't use the savings catcher because I don't think they need to know what I buy regularly, nor do I want to provide them with information they can use to sell and make money.

I use apple pay to keep my privacy. I even don't allow websites to follow my clicks recently because of the fact I got tired of ads on different pages for something that I looked at earlier in the day or beginning of the week.

Yup. Curious how to you were able to prevent the tracking. Thx.

 

[murdoc2k]

Walmart Pay is now live in every store in the US. This article is incorrect.

I was skeptical at first, but with Touch ID and 3D Touch integration, it really is seamless to do this. It is literally the most convenient alternative that could be made to ApplePay.

Unlock phone, 3D Touch the Walmart icon, unlock WalmartPay with TouchID, and scan the QR code. I've used it 10+ times and it takes 5 seconds or less to do it.

I agree with you that it is relatively seamless. I just think that with apple pay however, it's as simple as you can get with paying. Simply put your phone on top of the credit card machine and finger print the home button and vola, done!

While this may not be universal in America, here in Canada we have those NFC terminals everywhere so it's literally a credit card on its own.

With Walmart pay, because of the lack of seamless integration with other credit card terminals (it only works with Walmart's proprietary app and QR codes) essentially you have to 1) use their app 2) do an extra step of 3D touching the app to get that camera to load for scanning 3) Have an extra app just to pay for your goods while Apple Pay is built into your phone and does the exact same thing and works with most retailers.

It's redundant and doesn't benefit you as the customer. It makes you fumble around with 3D touch (mind you this only work with iPhone 6S users) and it is to THEIR benefit of not having to pay apple extra fees and locking you into THEIR eco system.

So no thanks and I hope they don't roll out this system in Canada. I hope they will see in the future that Android pay and Apple pay are only ways where they won't inconvene customers.

 

[BruiserB]

Is this an assumption or do you know this to be true?

You were asking if I knew for a fact that WalMart Pay transactions were treated as "Card Not Present" transactions and thus subject to a higher merchant fee to WalMart than if the card was directly used at the store.

In fact, I did not know for sure, but was assuming since the card info was coming from my WalMart.com account that is stored on WalMart's servers and not from the card actually being present, then the transaction would be treated the same as if I had ordered by internet from WalMart.com (i.e. as a Card Not Present transaction).

My AMEX card allows me to get alerts for various transactions. I actually had it set up already to give me alerts for "Card Not Present" transactions, since this isn't a card I would normally use to shop online. I decided to put this card into the WalMart app and go give it a try today.

First, I'll say that WalMart Pay is not horrible to use. At the self checkout I used, the QR Code is already present on the big screen of the terminal when you walk up to the checkout. So I was able to quickly scan the QR Code (and the code scanned fast before I even had it in the framed area of the camera view finder), which links that terminal to your account. Then I could put my phone away and it wasn't needed again to complete the transaction. I simply scanned my items, hit done, and left the store. The receipt was in my account and I left the store. I liked that part of the transaction.

I don't really like the idea of separate apps for each store. I'm not crazy about the QR Code part of it, but it did scan fast and easy. My least favorite part is that I do have to keep my credit card info loaded in WalMart's servers. I'd much rather be able to authorize in-app ApplePay each time.

As of now, I believe in-app ApplePay is treated as "Card Not Present". I would love to see Apple be able to convince the card companies that these transactions be treated as "Card Present", as they can only be authorized and sent by someone in actual possession of a locked device with stored card info. Then I'm sure we'd see much higher adoption of in-app ApplePay. Maybe Apple is working on this alongside the move on web ApplePay in Safari.

As to the original question, I did receive the notice below as soon as I completed my transaction. AMEX did identify my WalMart Pay transaction as "Card Not Present."