scibot

So I found a Del Taco in Brighton CO with Equinox Luxe 6200m and the nfc field seems very strong on all of the new Equinox pinpad/terminals. I thought it was mentioned before but maybe that was in the old thread as a search in this one resulted in nothing. I went up to SD/ND/MN and most gas stations have ctls at the pump by now and nearly all have it inside besides Holiday which has been rebranded as Circle K and they use the same hardware as Circle K but still no emv contactless on the NCR Radiant. It's been like that for years at this point. The screen appears to be default ncr with a white background with a blue bar. Up there Passport just runs ctls as credit no pin is forced and I believe CDCVM is actually supported as tapping my card resulted in a signature required but tapping a phone did not. I did not realize that Marathon Passport is very similar to Phillips 66/Conoco Passport as the receipt matches and both use MX915s with Passport.

tmiw

Looks like EMV and contactless are finally enabled on the PRONTO TVMs here. (I'm currently using a pass on my phone so I haven't been able to see how well either work yet.) One thing I did notice is that the Ingenico screen only had "insert or swipe card"; the only indication that contactless works is the green light on the reader.

As for the photos I promised the other day:





Way too expensive to just try, unfortunately, but that's how convention food usually goes.

invisible

Is there a limit in the US for card-based contactless payments?

So far I have been I've been tapping overseas-issued card without much problem, like $550 purchases as Save Mart.

cbn42

As far as I know, the limit is the same for each card whether it is contactless or inserted.

invisible

Interesting. In other countries there are differnt limits with different means of transactions - contactless has one limit, card insert - another.

tmiw

Whatever limit is there is going to be a country based one, and those don't particularly care what country the card is from. For example, the £100 (?) one the UK has.

cbn42

I am just speculating here, but I think in those countries the issue is not the means of transaction, but rather the PIN. There is a certain limit for no CVM, and then above that amount a PIN is needed, hence contactless doesn't work.

tmiw

Yep, or more specifically, offline PIN. However, even in those places you can usually tap your mobile device for much higher amounts.

invisible

So in UK if you tap a physical card on a terminal, limit is 100 pounds, but if you tap a phone on the same terminal with the same card in wallet, there is no limit?

tmiw

Correct.

cbn42

When using a phone, are you prompted for a PIN?

tmiw

No PIN required for transactions with a phone. Domestically that's supposed to be the case, too, but tipping/distrust of no CVM and debit cards add a bit of complication to that.

cbn42

In that case, it seems like it's not the PIN that is the issue. Perhaps the logic is that it is necessary to authenticate yourself by unlocking the phone before paying, so that is a sufficient substitute. But then, why is there a limit when tapping a physical card?

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.).

I see more and more people tapping cards. It is great. I shake my head at these places like Wal Mart and Kroger who still don't allow Contactless. Have a Wal Mart who just replaced pinpads with the new Lanes too (same as Home Depot has) and the NFC light is there and just blinking all the time. It is probably more frustrating with Wal Mart knowing the enabled it with those pinpads in Canada. Then again Kroger could enable it with the flip of a switch too since they do have it enabled and working at QFC. So I guess it is equally frustrating.

Do merchants pay more to process a Fallback transaction than a standard Chip/NFC transaction?

tmiw

The issue is more that terminals in the UK (and other countries that use offline PIN) have no way of verifying said PIN when tapping a physical card as said PIN is stored on the card itself. As a result, terminals are typically configured such that the only supported CVM above the limit is CDCVM, which is what mobile devices provide when one authenticates using a fingerprint/Face ID/etc. Since signature is also not a supported CVM for contactless in those countries, US cards are supposed to fail for high-valued contactless purchases as well (unless one uses a mobile device, of course).

Additionally, a lot of countries drastically increased their contactless limits due to COVID such that it's now typically high enough for the vast majority of purchases. That could make it difficult to run into any limits a country has depending on how you spend your money when traveling.

A long time ago I went to a Del Taco here that used VX820s. Contactless did work, albeit it was in MSD mode at the time. Other than that one location, the Del Tacos here basically didn't support contactless or EMV until they got the Equinox devices.

Oh, I don't expect Walmart or Home Depot to ever enable it for their US locations unless forced to do so. However, I am kinda surprised Kroger hasn't by now. You'd think if they were so heavily resistant to it, they wouldn't have even bothered with QFC and just gone harder in the direction of curbside pickup/delivery/etc. like many of the others who are still resisting.

Although thinking about it more, a belief that people are going to prefer curbside pickup way more than NFC payment over time shouldn't preclude the latter. I mean, my local Vons has both and the technology/IT at Albertsons isn't the best, so you'd think Walmart of all places could do so too.