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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 Aug 3, 2022, 1:16 am
  #286  
 
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Originally Posted by Majuki
It's hard to say. I forget the exact text, but it said something like, "Sorry. Mobile payments are not yet supported. You can pay with contactless if your card supports the feature."
"Not yet supported" means it is coming....
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Old Aug 3, 2022, 3:06 pm
  #287  
 
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Amazon is very big on no information sharing. This is why your Amazon confirmation emails don't indicate what you purchase (unlike any other online purchase anywhere) so that your email vendor (Google/Microsoft/Yahoo) cannot read what you are buying for marketing purposes. While we may in general understand that transactions don't typically have enough detail shared with the Wallets (which seems to be the term being used these days), I don't know what that means in detail (including support for e-receipts and other features).

I could see Amazon wanting to exclude Apple and Google, but I can't see them offering Wallet support and leaving out some of the players. It is weird that physical card contactless works, but not the virtual wallets. That would seem to me to be active disablement not just not yet supported.

Yes, Amazon Pay is making a new, big push relative to their old history, but we've seen that it is too little, too late. And the Amazon/Venmo (but not PayPal) partnership is supposed to be coming online soon too.
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Old Aug 3, 2022, 4:49 pm
  #288  
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Originally Posted by rasheed
Amazon is very big on no information sharing. This is why your Amazon confirmation emails don't indicate what you purchase (unlike any other online purchase anywhere) so that your email vendor (Google/Microsoft/Yahoo) cannot read what you are buying for marketing purposes. While we may in general understand that transactions don't typically have enough detail shared with the Wallets (which seems to be the term being used these days), I don't know what that means in detail (including support for e-receipts and other features).
I just looked at the email from yesterday's Amazon order. They don't list the items you just ordered, sure, but they do still show recommended items based on that order. I'm not sure how much better that is from an information-sharing perspective.

Originally Posted by rasheed
I could see Amazon wanting to exclude Apple and Google, but I can't see them offering Wallet support and leaving out some of the players. It is weird that physical card contactless works, but not the virtual wallets. That would seem to me to be active disablement not just not yet supported.
As mentioned above, the wording implies that they do plan on supporting NFC based mobile wallets at some point. Otherwise I would expect the wording to be significantly different or even disabled altogether like what other anti-mobile wallet retailers (e.g. Walmart) do. In fact, I'm kinda surprised contactless is enabled at all, really, given their previous Just Walk Out marketing and history in general.
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Old Aug 5, 2022, 3:41 pm
  #289  
 
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Took Amtrak Pacific Surfliner. Glad to see NFC and EMV working fine. It is sometimes slow due to spotty cell service but seems to be ok.
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Old Aug 5, 2022, 3:55 pm
  #290  
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Originally Posted by RedLight2015
Took Amtrak Pacific Surfliner. Glad to see NFC and EMV working fine. It is sometimes slow due to spotty cell service but seems to be ok.
Are the ticket machines still EMV only? They seemed to be at the San Diego station last time I walked through there, anyway.
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Old Aug 6, 2022, 1:05 am
  #291  
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Tonight we ate at Denny's (only thing open at the time our very delayed WN flight arrived). Unfortunately, their new Verifone terminals didn't like my UNFCU card in Google Pay, but tapping a physical contactless Chase card worked fine. Not sure if it was an issue on my end or something with their setup (the same UNFCU card and device worked fine at In-N-Out earlier today, FWIW).

BTW UNFCU is having a promotion for this month: 5x points for all purchases, 6x for streaming services and transit and 7x for grocery stores and restaurants (2500 points maximum per T&C). $25 cash back for <= $500 in normal purchases seems straightforward to me.

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Old Aug 6, 2022, 8:05 am
  #292  
 
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Originally Posted by tmiw
Are the ticket machines still EMV only? They seemed to be at the San Diego station last time I walked through there, anyway.
Yes they are. However, since the app has both Apple Pay and the passes themselves have Wallet support, this is the way to go for those who want a full Apple Pay only experience.
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Old Aug 9, 2022, 2:36 pm
  #293  
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The Burger King by my house finally reopened after having been torn down and rebuilt over the last year or two. They finally have contactless using the same official setup (Verifone P400s) as all of the other BK locations. (Before, this location was using Verifone VX820s with only EMV turned on. This despite them having had contactless turned on pre-EMV.)
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Old Aug 9, 2022, 7:38 pm
  #294  
 
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Originally Posted by tmiw
The Burger King by my house finally reopened after having been torn down and rebuilt over the last year or two. They finally have contactless using the same official setup (Verifone P400s) as all of the other BK locations. (Before, this location was using Verifone VX820s with only EMV turned on. This despite them having had contactless turned on pre-EMV.)
It seems the P400s at BK have issues with Amex contactless as it doesn't work. It seems the new Verifone and Ingenico pinpads both have issues while the new Equinox pinpads seem to be the best. Ingenico are the absolute worst with contactless. Most places with them are very very slow to read ctls. This is ridiculous and new Verifone pinpads have a few issues such as not reading a physical visa card tapped but Google Pay works just fine. I think BK might be using Point but I haven't been able to confirm that.
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Old Aug 11, 2022, 9:00 pm
  #295  
 
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Originally Posted by scibot
It seems the P400s at BK have issues with Amex contactless as it doesn't work. It seems the new Verifone and Ingenico pinpads both have issues while the new Equinox pinpads seem to be the best. Ingenico are the absolute worst with contactless. Most places with them are very very slow to read ctls. This is ridiculous and new Verifone pinpads have a few issues such as not reading a physical visa card tapped but Google Pay works just fine. I think BK might be using Point but I haven't been able to confirm that.
BK is using a newer version of Verifone Point for sure. Ingenico used to make amazing terminals with really good CTLS. I have no idea what happened, and why now everything just is junk polished up. Every store I go to with that Ingenico Lane small PIN pad, you have to hold the phone/card up there for a good 10 seconds before it would beep. It leads some people to of course, believe contactless doesn't work.
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Old Aug 11, 2022, 9:05 pm
  #296  
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Originally Posted by RedLight2015
BK is using a newer version of Verifone Point for sure. Ingenico used to make amazing terminals with really good CTLS. I have no idea what happened, and why now everything just is junk polished up. Every store I go to with that Ingenico Lane small PIN pad, you have to hold the phone/card up there for a good 10 seconds before it would beep. It leads some people to of course, believe contactless doesn't work.
I think it's the POS system and/or merchant configuration more than anything else. Raising Cane's, for example, has pretty good contactless performance despite using Lane/3000s. If anything, the newer Verifone terminals have significantly improved over the MX915s some places used to use.
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Old Aug 14, 2022, 10:29 am
  #297  
 
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I have some sad but to be expected news. My local Walmart got the same terminals as Canada now, alas, with NFC disabled. Sigh.

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Old Aug 14, 2022, 10:55 am
  #298  
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Originally Posted by RedLight2015
I have some sad but to be expected news. My local Walmart got the same terminals as Canada now, alas, with NFC disabled. Sigh.
Eh, they probably could have enabled contactless even on the iSC250s, so it's more unsurprising than anything. Plus, there's the possibility (even if very small) they're waiting until all locations have the new terminals first.

(BTW the location I went to last night still uses the iSC250s.)
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Old Aug 15, 2022, 1:39 pm
  #299  
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On another forum, someone posted a photo of the terminals USPS is switching to. Seems to be one of the newer Verifones, but with a camera/QR reader that I haven't seen before on that model (or at least never noticed before). I kinda wonder if they're going to need to swap out the Ingenico readers on the kiosks too before those ever become enabled for contactless.

(I don't expect my local post office to have them yet but I do need to mail something in the next day or two, so I should be able to check.)

EDIT: my post office does indeed have them (and they work):



Unfortunately, there's no indication whether CDCVM was used (or perhaps they only use it over a certain amount).

Last edited by tmiw; Aug 15, 2022 at 3:03 pm
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Old Aug 16, 2022, 10:46 am
  #300  
 
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Originally Posted by tmiw
Unfortunately, there's no indication whether CDCVM was used (or perhaps they only use it over a certain amount).
I did an EMV chip transaction last week at a post office and it says PIN: Not Required.
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