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USA contactless credit/debit/transit (2017 - 2021)

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Old Jan 16, 2017, 6:55 am
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: storewanderer
Older (archived) threads: 2014-16
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FAQ
  1. What is EMV contactless?

    EMV contactless is a form of contactless/NFC that uses the same security and encryption that is used when inserting a chip card into an EMV-enabled terminal. Other than not having to sign/enter a PIN for smaller transactions, the security is effectively the same as chip and PIN/chip and signature.

    In contrast, MSD contactless is an older version that is designed just and only for the United States. This effectively uses much the same flow as a swiped card transaction with the same rules.

  2. What is CDCVM?

    CDCVM stands for Consumer Device Cardholder Verification Method. It's a method of telling the terminal that the customer verified their identity using their mobile device. Terminals that support it will waive the signature/PIN requirement typically in place for larger transactions, potentially saving time at checkout.

    More info: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202527

  3. Does EMV contactless need to be supported to support CDCVM?

    Typically, yes. (However, there are some exceptions below.)

  4. Why can't I tap my foreign-issued contactless card at most places in the US?

    This is likely because the store does not support EMV contactless. Foreign issued contactless cards typically do not support MSD contactless since other markets have had EMV for quite some time. In contrast, most stores in the US have yet to get the necessary certifications/software for EMV contactless so they are typically MSD-only--if contactless is enabled at all. (See below for a list of stores where your card will likely work.)

  5. I paid for a purchase with Apple/Android/Samsung Pay and still had to sign for it.

    Most likely, the store in question does not have EMV contactless enabled (see above question). However, there are instances where CDCVM does not work even with EMV contactless enabled. Restaurants that allow tip adjust, for example--where the tip amount is written on a paper receipt and entered by the staff later--cannot support CDCVM. It may simply be a matter of the merchant's processor or the POS software in use not supporting it too.

    Another common reason is if you used a US-issued AmEx card with a mobile wallet. AmEx currently does not allow EMV contactless support in mobile wallets for these cards, so they always run as MSD contactless. Because of this, CDCVM is not supported (with very few exceptions, as noted below).

    Note: if you used Samsung Pay, you may have paid with MST instead of NFC. Since MST emulates the magnetic pulses that the terminal receives when swiping a regular card, the normal magstripe rules apply.

  6. How can I tell whether EMV contactless was used?

    An easy way to tell if you have Apple Pay is to pay with a Visa or MC while in airplane mode. Wallet will then show a transaction amount next to "Payment" for the card that was used. Alternatively, EMV-related information will typically print on the receipt (AID, etc.) if EMV contactless was used.

(Non-exhaustive) list of EMV contactless supporting merchants in the US:
  • 7-Eleven
  • 99 Ranch
  • Albertsons (Safeway, Vons, Pak N Save, Jewel, Acme, Shaws, Star, Carrs, Randalls, Tom Thumb, Haggen, Eagle, Lucky UT/SoCal)
  • Apple Store*†
  • Athleta
  • Auntie Anne’s Pretzels
  • Banana Republic
  • Costco Wholesale
  • CVS
  • DuaneReade*
  • El Pollo Loco
  • EG Group US (Quik Stop, Kwik Shop, Tom Thumb, Turkey Hill) Note: cashier must press "Electronic Payment" to activate NFC
  • Five Below*
  • Five Guys
  • GAP
  • Grocery Outlet*
  • Harmon's Grocery
  • H&M*
  • Jolibee
  • Kohl's*
  • Lush Cosmetics*
  • Maverik
  • McDonald's*
  • Meijer
  • Old Navy
  • Panera Bread
  • PetSmart
  • Ray's Food Place
  • Round Table Pizza
  • Royal Farms
  • Red Ribbon Bakeshop
  • Sheetz
  • Sherm's Thunderbird Discount Markets Inc.*
  • Sprouts
  • Staples*
  • Starbucks*
  • Subway
  • Walgreens*
  • Weis Markets
  • All businesses that use Square and support contactless*
  • All businesses that use Clover and support EMV†**
  • All businesses that use First Data standalone terminals (e.g. FD100+FD35, FD130) with EMV enabled**

* CDCVM support confirmed
** CDCVM support depends on store/restaurant
† CDCVM supported in MSD mode
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USA contactless credit/debit/transit (2017 - 2021)

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Old Mar 21, 2018, 1:17 pm
  #3661  
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Hmm, new Clover product? Looks like the contactless reader is built into the receipt printer. Of course, the cashier ended up swiping my card on the other station with a FD40, so I'm not sure how the former works.

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Old Mar 21, 2018, 1:57 pm
  #3662  
 
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Originally Posted by tmiw
Hmm, new Clover product? Looks like the contactless reader is built into the receipt printer. Of course, the cashier ended up swiping my card on the other station with a FD40, so I'm not sure how the former works.

Newer stations have EMV built into the tablet screen and contactless (optional and not sold to full service restaurants) on the receipt printer. Funny thing is they ponies up the extra cash for the contactless one. There’s also a customer display in the receipt printer now.


In all other news I went to pay my traffic ticket today. Maricopa county courts have emv and Apple Pay lol!
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Old Mar 21, 2018, 3:20 pm
  #3663  
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Originally Posted by RedLight2015
Newer stations have EMV built into the tablet screen and contactless (optional and not sold to full service restaurants) on the receipt printer. Funny thing is they ponies up the extra cash for the contactless one. There’s also a customer display in the receipt printer now.
Is this an indication that Clover (and perhaps other POS vendors) are giving up on the idea of customer-facing equipment for EMV/swipe? I'm just surprised it didn't happen sooner.

Also, why not allow table service restaurants to purchase contactless if they're okay with letting customers pay at the front? The networks are apparently okay with tip adjust so that can't be the issue.
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Old Mar 21, 2018, 3:22 pm
  #3664  
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BTW, out of curiosity, does Samsung Pay work for US cards on "international" Galaxy devices if said device was intended for another Samsung Pay country? I'm reading conflicting stuff online about it. (Considering getting a dual-SIM phone for international travel and those versions are options.)
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Old Mar 21, 2018, 4:31 pm
  #3665  
 
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Originally Posted by tmiw
Is this an indication that Clover (and perhaps other POS vendors) are giving up on the idea of customer-facing equipment for EMV/swipe? I'm just surprised it didn't happen sooner.

Also, why not allow table service restaurants to purchase contactless if they're okay with letting customers pay at the front? The networks are apparently okay with tip adjust so that can't be the issue.
I install Clover all the time, and the reasoning to do this is to streamline it with Clover Mini, and Mobile. The PIN pad is still provided for customers who bought the non contactless and want it later on.
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Old Mar 21, 2018, 6:38 pm
  #3666  
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Originally Posted by RedLight2015
I install Clover all the time, and the reasoning to do this is to streamline it with Clover Mini, and Mobile. The PIN pad is still provided for customers who bought the non contactless and want it later on.
Clover Mobile and Mini at least allow customer use of the terminal for all payment types. This seems like a step backwards even if a PIN pad can be added later (though eliminating customer involvement for non-contactless may be realistically necessary considering merchant/customer resistance in some industries).
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Old Mar 22, 2018, 4:55 pm
  #3667  
 
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Originally Posted by tmiw
BTW, out of curiosity, does Samsung Pay work for US cards on "international" Galaxy devices if said device was intended for another Samsung Pay country? I'm reading conflicting stuff online about it. (Considering getting a dual-SIM phone for international travel and those versions are options.)
If the device was sold in a specific international market (most are) and that international market has Samsung Pay AND the card issuer allows the card to be added to an international Samsung Pay device (AmEx and Discover DO NOT allow this). I end up getting the Samsung Pay promos for that international market as well that I cannot use which means the next Samsung device I buy will not be an international phone. However, I was able to use up my Chase Freedom 5% via Samsung Pay pretty easily. Most of the card issuers are working for me on Samsung Pay (Synchrony, Barclaycard US Visa, Chase, BofA)

That being said, I have to give props to AmEx and Capital One for having cards with the tap chip which is an option I like to have.

Rasheed
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Old Mar 22, 2018, 8:04 pm
  #3668  
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Originally Posted by rasheed
If the device was sold in a specific international market (most are) and that international market has Samsung Pay AND the card issuer allows the card to be added to an international Samsung Pay device (AmEx and Discover DO NOT allow this). I end up getting the Samsung Pay promos for that international market as well that I cannot use which means the next Samsung device I buy will not be an international phone. However, I was able to use up my Chase Freedom 5% via Samsung Pay pretty easily. Most of the card issuers are working for me on Samsung Pay (Synchrony, Barclaycard US Visa, Chase, BofA)

That being said, I have to give props to AmEx and Capital One for having cards with the tap chip which is an option I like to have.

Rasheed
Interestingly, I saw a post claiming that AmEx will actually allow US cards to be added to international phones. I don't remember how recently that was posted, however.

That said, there are other disadvantages to going the international phone route (like Wi-Fi Calling not working), so I'm not sure those would be worth getting dual SIM and Samsung Pay.
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Old Mar 24, 2018, 2:48 pm
  #3669  
 
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Originally Posted by tmiw
Interestingly, I saw a post claiming that AmEx will actually allow US cards to be added to international phones. I don't remember how recently that was posted, however.

That said, there are other disadvantages to going the international phone route (like Wi-Fi Calling not working), so I'm not sure those would be worth getting dual SIM and Samsung Pay.
I have a US Amex and UK Amex on my Canadian note 8. I also have a US Discover card on my Canadian phone .
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Old Mar 24, 2018, 3:22 pm
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Safeway: I didn't get a chance to ask IT earlier this week, so it will be a couple weeks until I get the opportunity to ask again.

But, I did play around and noticed a few things:

EMV is indeed Quick Chip. I inserted my card, waited 2-3 seconds, then it said 'Please Remove' and then it didn't process until after I removed the card.

I think the issue with NFC is that it's in passive mode. The MX915 does not trigger the Apple Pay screen on my phone, so it probably won't work with contactless cards. However, if I double tap the home button, let it read my fingerprint, then it will communicate with the pin pad just fine.

Here are two receipts from today:



Receipt on the left was with the chip inserted. It appears to have run as EMV. Receipt on the right was Apple Pay. That appears to have run as MSD.

Last edited by diburning; Mar 25, 2018 at 3:08 am
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Old Mar 24, 2018, 5:10 pm
  #3671  
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Originally Posted by diburning
I think the issue with NFC is that it's in passive mode. The MX915 does not trigger the Apple Pay screen on my phone, so it probably won't work with contactless cards. However, if I double tap the home button, let it read my fingerprint, then it will communicate with the pin pad just fine.
I'm pretty sure I've tapped contactless cards there before. I'll have to double-check next time to confirm though.
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Old Mar 24, 2018, 10:08 pm
  #3672  
 
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Originally Posted by tmiw
I'm pretty sure I've tapped contactless cards there before. I'll have to double-check next time to confirm though.
Contactless American Express (physical card) or Mastercard (physical card) works great at Safeway as long as the NFC is working correctly...
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Old Mar 24, 2018, 10:47 pm
  #3673  
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Originally Posted by storewanderer
Contactless American Express (physical card) or Mastercard (physical card) works great at Safeway as long as the NFC is working correctly...
Yep, was able to tap my SPG tonight. ^ I think Visa would work too assuming that Citi and Capital One added MSD support to their respective cards.
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Old Mar 25, 2018, 8:20 pm
  #3674  
 
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Samsung Pay can be so weird at Wal-Mart at times. Debit card usually takes 1 or 2 tries for it to accept it but my credit card is always accepted on the first try. Weird
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Old Mar 25, 2018, 9:47 pm
  #3675  
 
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Originally Posted by PKCorey
Samsung Pay can be so weird at Wal-Mart at times. Debit card usually takes 1 or 2 tries for it to accept it but my credit card is always accepted on the first try. Weird
My Canadian Amex always declines at US Walmart's on Samsung Pay but works at Canadian stores with the same card terminal. Very strange setup.
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