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

Old Jan 16, 2017, 6:55 am
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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 Annes 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)

Old May 14, 2019, 6:42 pm
  #6256  
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Originally Posted by D582
iOS 12.3 now supports Express Transit mode for EMV cards. TfL doesn’t currently support it but I’m guessing they will soon. And NYC MTA will undoubtedly support this
How does it know when you're using it for transit vs. with a regular merchant? Was there some sort of update to the EMV standards that I missed?

BTW per Apple's support docs, Portland already supports this.
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Old May 14, 2019, 10:53 pm
  #6257  
 
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Originally Posted by tmiw
How does it know when you're using it for transit vs. with a regular merchant? Was there some sort of update to the EMV standards that I missed?

BTW per Apple's support docs, Portland already supports this.
Transit card readers have a special flag that the phone would look for. Since its not a full EMV chip terminal.
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Old May 15, 2019, 12:01 am
  #6258  
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Originally Posted by RedLight2015
Transit card readers have a special flag that the phone would look for. Since its not a full EMV chip terminal.
Actually, it looks like there is a new EMV Contactless spec after all. The key appears to be zero value offline transactions; presumably any non-zero amount or online transaction would cause authentication to be required.
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Old May 16, 2019, 11:16 am
  #6259  
 
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Does anyone know if Amex cards default to MSD Contactless in the US on smart apps?

Local grocery store opened less than a month ago, Verifone MX pinpads with four dots (1 green/3 white) on the screen with tap direction. Tap Amex physical card and it says EMV Contactless with AID and all on receipt, tap my Gear S3 for Samsung Pay on the card, it says Entry Method: Swiped. Could be one register was configured for EMV contactless and the other not but I doubt it. Also the Gear S3 has MST but the antenna was nowhere near the swipe reader.
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Old May 16, 2019, 11:20 am
  #6260  
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Originally Posted by phltraveler
Does anyone know if Amex cards default to MSD Contactless in the US on smart apps?

Local grocery store opened less than a month ago, Verifone MX pinpads with four dots (1 green/3 white) on the screen with tap direction. Tap Amex physical card and it says EMV Contactless with AID and all on receipt, tap my Gear S3 for Samsung Pay on the card, it says Entry Method: Swiped. Could be one register was configured for EMV contactless and the other not but I doubt it. Also the Gear S3 has MST but the antenna was nowhere near the swipe reader.
Apple Pay supports EMV contactless with AmEx. Last I checked, the others didn't, but this could have changed recently. (Note that you have to remove and re-add cards for EMV to take effect, if that actually did get rolled out for the other mobile wallets.)
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Old May 16, 2019, 12:42 pm
  #6261  
 
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Originally Posted by tmiw
(Note that you have to remove and re-add cards for EMV to take effect, if that actually did get rolled out for the other mobile wallets.)
Except for the Marriott Bonvoy Amex card. At least for me, I had the Starwood version in Apple Pay and EMV seemed to be provisioned automatically when the card was automatically updated to reflect the new Marriott Bonvoy branding.
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Old May 16, 2019, 1:56 pm
  #6262  
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Originally Posted by Hawaiian717
Except for the Marriott Bonvoy Amex card. At least for me, I had the Starwood version in Apple Pay and EMV seemed to be provisioned automatically when the card was automatically updated to reflect the new Marriott Bonvoy branding.
I hadn't used that card in a while but the post did make me wonder if anything had changed, so I scanned my phone in cardpeek (both before and after re-adding) as well as the new contactless card that had arrived recently. In all cases, CDA appeared to be enabled, as well as showing data files that can be used for offline data authentication. However, no certificates appeared with the phone, but that's possibly due to Google Pay shutting off the NFC link after the terminal reads a certain amount of data.

Next, I went to CVS and made a small purchase to verify that EMV contactless was enabled for AmEx and it looks like it is indeed enabled now:



For reference, here's what the Google Pay app thinks the DAN is:



So yeah, hopefully this means AmEx in Google Pay will work on the Underground now. ^

(1F is "no CVM" above; the purchase would likely have needed to be much larger to get CDCVM to trigger.)

BTW, one interesting note is that CVS apparently skipped the first AID on the phone's priority list (A000000025021001) and selected the second one (A000000025011001). I'm not sure what the difference is between the two.
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Old May 16, 2019, 3:08 pm
  #6263  
 
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EMV Contactless became available for google pay on 04/01 for amex.

If it hasn't updated to emv mode, you could probably remove/readd
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Old May 16, 2019, 5:15 pm
  #6264  
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Originally Posted by PhX1Guy
EMV Contactless became available for google pay on 04/01 for amex.

If it hasn't updated to emv mode, you could probably remove/readd
Actually, I'm not sure remove/re-add is necessary, at least for the Marriott card. Though I do remember scanning it back when the new card image got provisioned only to find that it was still MSD, so I dunno.
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Old May 16, 2019, 7:52 pm
  #6265  
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Just landed at SMF and saw this Chipotle in the Google Pay app. Might they finally be getting EMV and contactless?


Maybe I'll look at photos of the inside on Yelp or something later to see if I see anything obvious. I probably won't have an opportunity this trip to visit in person unfortunately.
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Old May 16, 2019, 10:12 pm
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From /r/costco: https://www.reddit.com/r/Costco/comm...test_location/ and https://imgur.com/31GRzDm
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Old May 17, 2019, 1:53 am
  #6267  
 
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The TWA Hotel had its opening on Wednesday, and the reception has self service stands to check in and make your keys. Contactless was enabled, and I think this is the first time I've done a contactless payment for a hotel:


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Old May 17, 2019, 3:46 am
  #6268  
 
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Originally Posted by tmiw
...so I scanned my phone in cardpeek...
What card reader are you using? I can detect contactless credit cards with my Sony RC-S380 but Cardpeek doesn't seem to work with it.
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Old May 17, 2019, 5:22 am
  #6269  
 
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Originally Posted by Rufferto
What card reader are you using? I can detect contactless credit cards with my Sony RC-S380 but Cardpeek doesn't seem to work with it.
Same, I have an NXP NPC300 NFC receiver in my Lenovo Yoga 370 and the computer makes noise when a contactless card/device is put up to the sensor on the laptop, but Cardpeek doesn't see it...
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Old May 17, 2019, 8:10 am
  #6270  
 
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Originally Posted by PhX1Guy
EMV Contactless became available for google pay on 04/01 for amex.

If it hasn't updated to emv mode, you could probably remove/readd
I added my Amex to Samsung Pay on 04/07/2019 so either they aren't doing it for certain products or they only enabled EMV Contactless on Apple Pay & Android pay while not doing so for Samsung Pay...

EDIT: Deleted and readded and now it shows up as EMV contactless. I guess the enable date for EMV contactless on Amex for Samsung Pay was later than Apple Pay/Google Pay.

Last edited by phltraveler; May 17, 2019 at 8:24 am
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