Apple pay should protect you from any NFC skimming as the number used in any transaction is only good for that transaction and cannot be used again. So even if someone where to "eavesdrop" you apple pay session the information would be outdated immediately.NFC skimmers? Hope this will be more secure.
[doublepost=1454090168][/doublepost]Here is the problem I have with Apple pay (i recently got a iPhone 6s and tried to use apple pay), it works great, BUT there are a lot of places (most of the places I vistit in fact) that no wallet app would ever work:
The issue is that you have to hand your card over in many places:
Sit down restaurants, I have to give the waiter my card to pay; he then takes it back and rings it up, even if they had an NFC terminal in the POS system in the back, I cant use apple pay unless I go into the back-of-the-house.
In the drive through, other than McDonald's that has an NFC reader outside the window, all the others have to take my card from me and ring it up on the terminal inside. Again, even if they had an NFC reader, how do I pay?
Even at most fast food places, (except McDonald's) their POS terminal "faces" the cashier, not the customer, so if they had NFC I would have to reach over the counter to try and pay.
Gas stations; most have an insert-your-card type readers at the pump (none that I've been to have NFC) and even if i pay inside, its the same as the fast food, where the terminal "faces" the cashier.
Larger stores are better, I.E. safeway, lucky's, etc... But target and Walmart I don't think use/support NFC yet.
What apple needs to do is set-up something that allows me to pre-authorize a 1-time-only apple payment;
I.E double-tap, then click a button that says "hand-off" or something, that will allow the phone to be passed to a cashier, waiter, etc to pay via the NFC terminal in the back-of-the-house. Then when they return the phone it will have a "RECEIPT" clearly displayed on the home screen for the amount payed, so I can verify the price (just like we do now at restaurants) This process could even ask for "TIP" or "gratuity" that could add my specified amount automatically to the charge.
Another thing that apple could do is build-out an app for device-to-device apple pay and Register type app so that maybe places could have their waiters carrying ipad minis that could be used to "receive" apple pay payments at the point of sale (table-side) and a car-reader attachment (just like Square) OR perhaps just leave this to companies like Square.