Originally Posted by
tmiw
I suspect contactless/NFC as currently implemented adds very little for most Americans and in fact is more of a hassle than inserting considering how horrible some merchants' software is. It's probably why some are starting to offer additional rewards for using it, though they might need to do this for multiple years (or possibly longer) to get the habit to "stick".
This is accurate. Samsung Pay has rewards points that you get for making your purchases. Mobile wallets in general are just a mess right now.
Google Wallet as implemented tried to get merchants to go "Single Tap" - tapping the phone would use your store loyalty card, applicable coupons, and the payment at once, which was a legitimate convenience. However, the integration allowed Google to harvest information on where people were shopping and use that info to target ads to them. Banks weren't on board, and weren't until Apple Pay was released and Wallet was rebranded Android Pay (which dropped the coupon and loyalty integration in favor of a much simpler system to provision the card to the phone NFC element).
The failure of ISIS Wallet, a T-Mobile/AT&T/Verizon joint effort that had to be rebranded Softcard by the time it was released due to the negative associations of ISIS, was too little too late because it was delayed to hell. It also relied on the SIM card having the NFC element, and the cell networks wanted to get paid for acts like provisioning bank cards to the wallet on the phone. That's shutdown.
Merchants meanwhile recognized that if people were trained to use these new wallets they would have contactless payments with interchange being used more and more, especially a lot of debit cards run in credit mode at the higher 2-4% interchange rates, so they tried to make MCX (an app that would display QR codes and take money from people's wallets), but they had security issues, late rollout, etc... in the interim though, retailers like CVS were disabling the NFC readers on their registers so competing mobile wallets would not function at their stores.
The average person just doesn't have that many cards where it's harder to get the wallet out than the phone, and the number of NFC enabled PIN pads in the US is not that great outside of a handful of larger merchants. Unless you offer some really crazy incentive (Discover offered 10% cashback on Apple Pay on up to $10K in eligible spend in 2015, and all cashback earned within a year of account opening was doubled - people were making 20% effective), phone payment typically isn't that much more convenient.
Originally Posted by
manda99
Pre-chip cutover, several/most of my cards had the symbol on them, but there were very few places to use them. Then they added chips to all my cards and inexplicably removed contactless when they did. I've never understood. I've got it back on my American Express, but it feels like we're going backwards sometimes.
Originally Posted by
tmiw
I only remember AmEx ever having them back in 2007 or so (as it came by default when I first got that card). I didn't know Chase had them until I got the letter saying they were discontinued, never mind anyone else. There were a lot of mentions on bank websites of how the "new" chip cards can't be tapped, though, which is why I initially thought customer paranoia killed them.
Originally Posted by
Points Scrounger
WF had it when I got a card in 2014. A couple of years back they announced that old cards would still work, but they were discontinuing it on any replacement cards, due to "technical issues." It did have the ))) on the back, so European merchants would start to insert it automatically.
I think now that most clients have access to either Apple or Android Pay, they see it as Why Bother?
The problem is that tapping and paying with the real card is seen as insecure. Chase started mass rollout of the Blink chips in 2005, and they were getting some larger places on board to stick out Vivotech RFID readers to read the chips. Problem is, the chips costed money, and in the name of cost saving they used cheaper chips that had a static CVV3 (CVV1 = unique verification value on the magswipe, CVV2 = Three digits on back or four digits on front [if Amex], CVV3 = secret on a chip (whether EMV or contactless). Static CVV3 means the card is always broadcasting its verification value to anyone who wants to read it and all you need to do to clone a card is to be near it once.
They also used the same account number as the front of the card and broadcasted the cardholder's name as part of the chip response.
In turn, banks later moved to chips that only broadcasted a unique, separate account number for the contactless transaction and then a dynamic CVV3 that changed with each transaction, making cloning the chip or performing a replay attack (being near the chip once and then later playing what you heard from the chip to a reader later) impossible. The damage had already been done by the crap chips - local news stations had a field day on the risk of it, consumers distrusted chips.
Then the whole thing became chicken and egg: Many consumers saw the RFID tap chip as insecure, those who didn't had nowhere to spend them. Merchants had no real interest from people to use tap payments, so they didn't upgrade their points of sale.
With Apple Pay and Google Pay and such and people hearing tokenization, have to enter PIN or fingerprint, etc. they're willing to give it a second shot, and the NFC came in a lot of the store's credit card readers when they had to start upgrading them to support the EMV (contact) chip in 2015.
Originally Posted by
wco81
What are the banks' motivation for greater use of mobile payments?
Lower transaction costs?
More secure?
Chase has been offering incentives on Apple and Android Pay recently.
Originally Posted by
cardsqc
I live in a major college town, and I'm amazed at the number of cashiers that are absolutely astounded that you can use your phone to pay for something. The part that particularly puzzles me is that a lot of these people are of the age group that I would have thought would know far more about that type of thing. It's almost bad enough to make me not use it just so I don't have to go through the reaction from another clueless clerk.
The lack of support at a lot of stores doesn't help.
Originally Posted by
Dodge DeBoulet
In Maine, a state that's probably somewhat behind the curve technology-wise, the only time I get a funny look from a cashier is when I use my Samsung phone or smartwatch to pay at a card swipe that's not "contactless" (NFC) equipped.
Yeah I either get "We don't support that" or shock when it goes through, although I occasionally get "that'll only work if it's a Samsung" (If the cashier knows most phone payment doesn't work but has seen people with Samsung phones pay using the MST to emulate the magswipe before).
Originally Posted by
gfunkdave
I've actually found that there are many places here in Portland (ME) that support contactless. It seems like anywhere with a Square or Clover POS system will by default, for example.
My SPG Amex has had contactless since at least 2007.
Square supports it on certain readers, generally the newer ones do by default. Clover supports by default too. It helps that the card processing is integrated in the point of sale software, this can be a limitation for other merchants (hence why you see a lot of new Ingenico or Verifone PINPads with chip slots that have"NO CHIP USE SWIPE" signs taped over them).
Many banks don't issue the cards with tap chips by default in the US anymore, if it's even an option. Although some issuers started again. This is for the US parts of these banks:
Discover: Does not issue contactless cards at all, points people to mobile wallets for contactless payments.
Suntrust: Doesn't issue tap cards, points to mobile wallets.
Barclays Bank Deleware: Doesn't issue tap cards, points to mobile wallets.
Chase: Doesn't issue tap cards, points to mobile wallets.
Amex: Only issues cards with ExpressPay tap chips if the person asks for it nowadays.
Wells Fargo: Issues cards with tap chips for certain cards upon request since late 2016
Citi: Issues a Visa PayWave chip in the Costco visa. Not aware of any other cards they have with it.
CapitalOne: Started issuing tap enabled to QuickSilver and VentureOne last year.