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USA contactless payment cards (2022 - 2023)

Old Jan 8, 2022, 9:16 pm
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FAQ
  1. What is EMV contactless?

    EMV contactless is a form of near-field communication (NFC)/contactless 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. (EMV stands for Europay, MasterCard & Visa, the 1994 founders of the EMV chip or smart chip technology.)

    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 payment cards (2022 - 2023)

Old Jul 25, 2022, 3:56 pm
  #256  
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 1,722
Originally Posted by storewanderer
Del Taco still seems to have Verifone in my area and last time I went they would not allow Contactless. The employee insisted it would not work. They are on Aloha POS/NCR hardware (some may have some old Radiants left).

So Circle K must have changed the name on the Holiday Stores but they did not bother to update the POS system to the Circle K POS system. Circle K did finally get rid of all the zip code prompts with its POS system though at least in CA and in CO they got rid of the zip code prompts everywhere (pump, inside, etc.).
The Del Taco I visited uses the Aloha POS registers as well. Yeah most former Holiday Station stores still use Wayne pumps with nfc readers that don't work either but they have upgraded some to Circle K style Flex Pay IV with nfc readers but it still never works. It's a very similarly configured NCR Radiant system inside though which makes no sense to not upgrade it. No idea what the hold up is as it should be working by now. But yeah it's true that there is no more Circle K Shells in Colorado anymore!
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Old Jul 25, 2022, 6:22 pm
  #257  
 
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Originally Posted by scibot
The Del Taco I visited uses the Aloha POS registers as well. Yeah most former Holiday Station stores still use Wayne pumps with nfc readers that don't work either but they have upgraded some to Circle K style Flex Pay IV with nfc readers but it still never works. It's a very similarly configured NCR Radiant system inside though which makes no sense to not upgrade it. No idea what the hold up is as it should be working by now. But yeah it's true that there is no more Circle K Shells in Colorado anymore!
Circle K is such a hot mess. They went and added Apple Pay stickers to all the gas pumps here, and half of them don't work due to being Shell, and the ones that do work, reject Apple's own card, the Apple Card, despite tapping other MasterCards without issue!
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Old Jul 25, 2022, 6:41 pm
  #258  
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Originally Posted by RedLight2015
Circle K is such a hot mess. They went and added Apple Pay stickers to all the gas pumps here, and half of them don't work due to being Shell, and the ones that do work, reject Apple's own card, the Apple Card, despite tapping other MasterCards without issue!
I was going to say that it might be another case of a merchant not liking how the Apple Card is configured (no CVM as the only supported CVM), but I would think the phone side would at least have CDCVM too.
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Old Jul 25, 2022, 11:04 pm
  #259  
 
Join Date: Apr 2019
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Originally Posted by RedLight2015
Circle K is such a hot mess. They went and added Apple Pay stickers to all the gas pumps here, and half of them don't work due to being Shell, and the ones that do work, reject Apple's own card, the Apple Card, despite tapping other MasterCards without issue!
The Circle K by me (Indianapolis area) rejected a Chase Freedom Flex (Mastercard) in Apple Pay the other day...seems that some still don't like any Mastercards as contactless.
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Old Jul 25, 2022, 11:36 pm
  #260  
 
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As a data point, I have been using an overseas-issued card tapping on terminals and had no problem with transactions going to $500.

One weird thing is that in certain places when I tried to insert the card first, it was rejected, but on a repeated try when tap, the transaction went thru... I thought that chip-based transactions had priority...
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Old Jul 25, 2022, 11:55 pm
  #261  
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Originally Posted by invisible
As a data point, I have been using an overseas-issued card tapping on terminals and had no problem with transactions going to $500.

One weird thing is that in certain places when I tried to insert the card first, it was rejected, but on a repeated try when tap, the transaction went thru... I thought that chip-based transactions had priority...
I am curious what country your card is from? And what kind of stores have you been using it at? $500 transactions at physical stores are not common, and may trigger a fraud alert, especially on a foreign card. When you inserted, was it the terminal rejecting the card, or your bank?
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Old Jul 26, 2022, 10:23 am
  #262  
 
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Originally Posted by cbn42
I am curious what country your card is from? And what kind of stores have you been using it at? $500 transactions at physical stores are not common, and may trigger a fraud alert, especially on a foreign card. When you inserted, was it the terminal rejecting the card, or your bank?
Singapore. I am using it at supermarkets here to buy Amazon/etc gift cards because I am getting 8% cashback for supermarket purchases. It was a terminal that rejected the card, not a bank. fter tapping everything went fine.

In Singapore, there is no custom for fraud alerts for large/unusual purchases which is rather more a problem than a convenience. Because it is standard to have a credit card limit of 3x-12x of monthly salary/income and very common for locals to use credit cards to buy unusual (from the US perspective) purchases - like Rolex watches and 8K TVs for $15k. As a result, a bank won't block the transaction or alert you, you just receive an SMS notification that the transaction went thru.

Which also means that if there is a clearly fraudulent transaction, it won't be blocked either. I had someone buy some time ago USD $15K worth of Facebook credits in VND with my Singapore-issued card - never been in Vietnam or have used that card for online purchases. The only thing I got from 15 different transactions was 2 SMS that transaction went thru. I had to go to the police and file a report and bring paperwork to the bank to have transactions removed.

Oh yes, if you lose your card and don't notify the bank the same/next day if someone finds the card and goes on a shopping spree, you are hooked on expenses - there is no liability protection. There was a case several days ago when someone lost a card, others found it, took it across the border to Malaysia, went on a shopping spree for $15K and the bank told the card owner that he has to pay.

Last edited by invisible; Jul 26, 2022 at 11:03 am
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Old Jul 27, 2022, 1:09 am
  #263  
 
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Originally Posted by ecs0013
The Circle K by me (Indianapolis area) rejected a Chase Freedom Flex (Mastercard) in Apple Pay the other day...seems that some still don't like any Mastercards as contactless.
So far with Circle K (Circle K branded fuel- Radiant POS) I cannot get American Express to work Contactless at the pump. I think I tried it inside and it worked (maybe not).

I've gotten both Visa and Mastercard to work at the pump Contactless. Visa worked inside, don't think I tried Mastercard inside.
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Old Jul 27, 2022, 1:10 am
  #264  
 
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Originally Posted by invisible
As a data point, I have been using an overseas-issued card tapping on terminals and had no problem with transactions going to $500.

One weird thing is that in certain places when I tried to insert the card first, it was rejected, but on a repeated try when tap, the transaction went thru... I thought that chip-based transactions had priority...
Save Mart's system has been a bit odd lately. The last two weeks I have tapped a Visa there and the pinpad first wants me to "enter PIN" which I press nothing but enter since it is a US credit card (no PIN) and then the transaction goes through but it goes through MSD Contactless not EMV Contactless. Previously they had everything going EMV Contactless so I'm not sure what happened, if this is only an issue at this one store's self checkouts, or what.
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Old Jul 27, 2022, 8:40 am
  #265  
 
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Originally Posted by storewanderer
it goes through MSD Contactless not EMV Contactless.
What is the difference in terms of functionality and where does Apple/Samsung pay fall in?
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Old Jul 27, 2022, 11:41 am
  #266  
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The USPS kiosks at the main sorting facility here still don't have contactless enabled as of today. They also seem to still be using iPP350s at the counter.

Originally Posted by invisible
What is the difference in terms of functionality and where does Apple/Samsung pay fall in?
In short, MSD behaves closer to how swiping cards worked. There's no ability to recognize that you authenticated on your mobile device so the terminal can only ask for PIN (for debit cards) or signature (credit cards). There are also some security implications but I'm not sure if those vulnerabilities were exploited in practice.

On the other hand, EMV contactless is like it sounds. The protocol used is closer to what's used when inserting (with differences since the card can't be there for the entire transaction, of course). The terminal can also recognize when you used fingerprint/Face ID/etc. and use that as authentication in lieu of a signature of PIN.
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Old Jul 28, 2022, 7:40 pm
  #267  
 
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Originally Posted by tmiw
The USPS kiosks at the main sorting facility here still don't have contactless enabled as of today. They also seem to still be using iPP350s at the counter.
FedEx Office is even worse. Not only don't they do contactless, but they're still swipe only. I used my card there yesterday.
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Old Jul 28, 2022, 8:23 pm
  #268  
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Originally Posted by LoveClassicMusic0205
FedEx Office is even worse. Not only don't they do contactless, but they're still swipe only. I used my card there yesterday.
The iPP350s might still be swipe only but all of FedEx's other terminals support everything.

BTW I forgot to mention before but it looks like USPS might have disabled credit PIN altogether at the kiosks. I wasn't prompted for one with my Diners Club MC, anyway, but the transaction was also super small (2x First Class stamps, basically the minimum purchase it'll let me make).
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Old Jul 29, 2022, 12:56 am
  #269  
 
Join Date: Oct 2019
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Originally Posted by LoveClassicMusic0205
FedEx Office is even worse. Not only don't they do contactless, but they're still swipe only. I used my card there yesterday.
My FedEx Office has supported contactless forever, but my local Ship Center (which is just 0.2mi away from the Office location) is swipe only -_-
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Old Jul 29, 2022, 10:38 pm
  #270  
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Speaking of no contactless, Wendy's here still doesn't have it as of today (and still runs suspiciously well kept iPP320s, too, so I'm guessing it'll be a while).
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