Live data from Hacker News

Apple Pay Now Accounts for Three-Fourths of U.S. Contactless Payments

fortune.com

101–110 of 113 posts

Re: Apple Pay Now Accounts for Three-Fourths of U.S. Contactless Payments

#101
post #28

I kept my Australian bank issued Visa card for a while when I first moved to Thailand, and used it while we were getting stuff set up locally. Even though it's never presented locally, with that card cashiers would often get the "sign or pin" prompt on the terminal, and then ask me (or gesture if their English wasn't great), and I'd usually pick pin, which would then produce a slip with "No signature required" printe…

Signing actually helps against fraud: Signatures can be compared, PINs cannot – and you can be made liable … :(

I've watched while my wife, at a Thai bank, is told by the cashier at the counter "I'm sorry, your signature doesn't match close enough, it should look like this can you try it again?" when filling in a withdrawal slip for 200K (about $7K USD).

I had something similar years ago in Australia. I went into a branch, my signature had changed a LOT, and I couldn't match the old one. So they promptly updated my signature on file, based purely on the fact that I had my card and knew the pin (I don't even remember showing them my ID).

Re: Apple Pay Now Accounts for Three-Fourths of U.S. Contactless Payments

#102
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't you able to just tap your chip card on the terminal without a pin for purchases less than ~$100? I live in Australia and this is literally everywhere.

It's the same here in the UK. Contactless cards are on the rise here and are incredibly convenient - moreso than Apple/Android pay, IMO. You don't have to wake a card up to use it and the batteries never run out! http://www.theukcardsassociation.org.uk/contactless_contactl...

I'd actually argue contactless cards are ubiquitous now.

Re: Apple Pay Now Accounts for Three-Fourths of U.S. Contactless Payments

#103
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with a pin system is that I have a like 8 cards that I use pretty randomly. While any of them can have a pin, the only one I know is my ATM card. I can't imagine how people do this with multiple cards and multiple pins without a password manager or some algorithm.

May I ask why you have eight cards? Is that common in your part of the world? I've got three cards: personal account, business account, and credit cards. I don't remember the credit card PIN since I rarely need it, so that leaves two PINs. I'm already having a hard time remember my business card PIN since I don't use it much. Can't imagine having to carry around eight and remembering all those PINs!

Eight was an exaggeration. It's five, counting my ATM card. They're all personal accounts. I only know the PIN for the ATM. They're all on autopay and it's not like I come anywhere close to the limit on them, so it doesn't matter.

Re: Apple Pay Now Accounts for Three-Fourths of U.S. Contactless Payments

#104
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Australia and since we already have contactless payments everywhere I don't understand the benefit/s Apple Pay provides over tapping my card on the terminal. Am I missing something?

Contactless payment has been rolled out in many places in Holland over the past year or two, and while that decreases the benefit of using your phone, it's still slightly easier to pull out your phone than to take a card out of a wallet, pay, then put it back in. For me that would be enough of an improvement to switch.

I keep my card in my phone case, so I just wave my phone over contactless sensor. And even before I wouldn't bother taking it out of the wallet and simply tapped the wallet itself.

Re: Apple Pay Now Accounts for Three-Fourths of U.S. Contactless Payments

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Australia and since we already have contactless payments everywhere I don't understand the benefit/s Apple Pay provides over tapping my card on the terminal. Am I missing something?

Yep. Apple Pay uses a one time authorization code and not your card numbers, etc... The merchant does not get your card number or name. They can only use that authorization code for one transaction. Even if your PIN is stolen, the thief still cannot access your account.

Contactless cards work the same.

Re: Apple Pay Now Accounts for Three-Fourths of U.S. Contactless Payments

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I bet this credit card insertion issue is going to become a case study for business students everywhere in a couple of years. Maybe in America. In the rest of the world, we have had chipped cards for years (Canada, Europe) and people don't have a problem using them.

I live in Germany and I think this could be simplified: - Items are scanned - The cashier tells you the amount - You mention that you'll pay with your card, usually showing it is enough too - The cashier activates the chip scanner - You insert your card to the reader - Wait a second or two, the screen changes to "Enter PIN" - You enter your PIN and press the green button - You wait around 5 seconds and hopefully it s…

For purchases less than 25€ you only have to hold your card close to the reader and it will work without PIN, for amounts higher than that you also don't have to insert rhe card but again just hold it close to it and enter the PIN. At least that's the situation in Austria nowadays.

Re: Apple Pay Now Accounts for Three-Fourths of U.S. Contactless Payments

#108

... and an increasing portion of the fraud. Apparently CHIP+PIN is making POS fraud harder so theives are moving to Apple Pay. Unfortunately I don't have details on how they use Apple Pay. It might be all social engineering for all I know.

I just re-read the community guidelines and I'm not sure why this was downvoted. Help?

Re: Apple Pay Now Accounts for Three-Fourths of U.S. Contactless Payments

#109
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't you able to just tap your chip card on the terminal without a pin for purchases less than ~$100? I live in Australia and this is literally everywhere.

As always, the US is a little behind the times on this too - most credit cards here don't have contactless yet. (I have one that does but its a rarity)

Oddly enough, I remember several of my cards having a contactless option circa 2009. None of them do now. I'm not sure why, as that was a fantastically useful feature.

Re: Apple Pay Now Accounts for Three-Fourths of U.S. Contactless Payments

#110

When I first got an iPhone with Apple Pay, I felt ridiculous pulling it out to buy groceries. It felt gimmicky, like I was showing off. That changed when my grocery store started requiring chipped cards to use the chip. AP easily shaves 20-30 seconds off the transaction. I can pay while items are still being scanned, I don't have to remember to remove the card, and the auth process is just faster. Works well enough f…

Aren't you able to just tap your chip card on the terminal without a pin for purchases less than ~$100? I live in Australia and this is literally everywhere.

I'm an Australian expat and one of the surprising things I discovered is that no, you can't do that. Despite the US being technically ahead in so many areas (like internet speed), regular banking here is stone age. It's like going back in time around a decade.

Until some time last year most stores didn't even accept cards with chips (they still swiped), it's still normal to "authorize" a transaction with a signature (even with a chip) and many things you interact with (particularly landlords) still expect you to pay with pieces of paper (cheques, money orders).

Not to mention that your account numbers are closely guarded secrets because your account number is all that's needed for literally anyone to withdraw money from your account.

Admittedly, there are some areas in finance where they're kinda ahead. Micro-loans are interesting and new for example. Day to day purchases are around a decade behind though.

Post reply on HN