Live data from Hacker News

Apple Pay on pace to account for 10% of global card transactions

qz.com

161–170 of 432 posts

Re: Apple Pay on pace to account for 10% of global card transactions

#161

Now if only I could carry my ID around on my iPhone I wouldn't need to carry a wallet.

Until you drop you phone and break it or it barfs on you in some other way. There was high profile case of an iPhone user who got fined over £600 because the phone died and they could not show the rail ticket to the guard on the train. She was lucky enough to get it picked up by the national press, probably knew someone.

> There was high profile case of an iPhone user who got fined over £600 because the phone died and they could not show the rail ticket to the guard on the train.

With certain NFC transit cards, the iPhone can now emulate them even when the main OS shut down due to low battery!

Re: Apple Pay on pace to account for 10% of global card transactions

#162
post #17

A big part of this is that apparently US credit card companies decided not to include contactless when they switched over to chip cards, in order to save money. Ironically, contactless was becoming fairly common before the move to EMV, but is now pretty rare. I think about half my cards had it a few years ago, but now none do.

I wonder if contactless will also gain favor as being less likely to spread disease. If you just wave the authentication device, it is less likely to communicate surface contamination.

Considering how frequently people use their devices while sitting on a toilet, I'm not so sure.

Re: Apple Pay on pace to account for 10% of global card transactions

#163

I had dinner with members of the Apple Pay team a year or two back. I asked them, “So, who are your competitors? Google Pay? PayPal?” They laughed. “No, we don’t really track them. We have one main competitor. Credit cards. We care about Apple Pay being better, easier and more convenient to use than any of your credit cards.” And then, finishing dinner, the guy paid with his Apple Watch, using Apple Pay. The waiter w…

[deleted]

Re: Apple Pay on pace to account for 10% of global card transactions

#164
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have actually started preferring 76 stations because they all support the 76 app which lets me pay without credit card. My card was skimmed (and recreated into a new physical card!) earlier this year, which almost certainly happened at a gas station.

I'm holding out; i don't want to install yet another app, i want to wave my watch at the thing and have gas come out without mobil knowing more about me.

Back in the 90's Mobil had a little thing you put on your keychain that did this. It was shaped like a plastic tube about the size of a match, but thicker.

I don't know what happened to it. My guess is that since most gas stations are small businesses, they didn't want to pay to upgrade all of their pumps.

Re: Apple Pay on pace to account for 10% of global card transactions

#165
post #113
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know what qualifies as "significant", but I've used contactless on my actual card a handful of times and never needed a PIN

At least in the UK, contactless is limited to 20£ and probably has other limits as well I suspect.

As mentioned by others, the limit was raised to £30 over 4 years ago. Although, there is SCA (Strong Customer Authentication) regulation in the pipeline. I received an alert from at least two providers last year, albeit it does not apply to Apple Pay or Google Pay. However, due to Brexit, it remains to seen, if the banks will continue to implement it, or maybe change it to fit a new framework or renege on this pledge entirely.

Every time you make payments totalling €150 (£127) since you last entered your PIN, the contactless transaction will be declined. And a payment will be declined every time you’ve made five contactless payments in a row.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2020/02/06/new-europe...

Re: Apple Pay on pace to account for 10% of global card transactions

#166
post #19

5% at the moment seems like an incredibly high number to me, at least in the US. I looked it up here, where the stats say a different number: https://www.pymnts.com/apple-pay-adoption/ Also latest is about 51% of merchants have compatible equipment. 1.1% of sales is apple pay. Also usage numbers have gone down from 2018 to 2019. Seems like a puff piece to me?

They’re claiming 5% of global card transactions, that surely can’t be true, there are quite a few developed countries where iPhones are not that common, and countries where other contactless payment systems are already widespread. And what about middle income and poor countries?

In Australia I would say that about 90% of card transactions are contactless and of them a good 30% use some type of phone payment. Isn't even blinked at any more.

Re: Apple Pay on pace to account for 10% of global card transactions

#167
Apple Pay is great, but I wish it was more universally accepted at point of sale. But in the US we're not even at consistency in any form of POS payment method.

Disney World (Florida) notably spent a BILLION dollars implementing a wonderful contactless payments++ system called MagicBand. [1]

Last week I was shocked that at Disneyland (California), where they haven't implemented MagicBand, they not only don't accept Apple Pay or other contactless payments, they weren't even consistent about chip vs. mag swipe!

During one transaction, after unsuccessfully swiping, the teller told me to insert the chip in a tone like I've been living under a rock. I had defaulted to swipe after the previous 3 transactions had been. There was no post-it note like many businesses resort to.

If even Disney can't get this right in their highly-curated-experience theme park, I'm not holding my breath for universal adoption anytime soon.

[1] https://www.wired.com/2015/03/disney-magicband/

Re: Apple Pay on pace to account for 10% of global card transactions

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I’m not sure, I say “Apple Pay okay?” to the cashier first in what I hope is a friendly way. Sometimes they’re not sure and will say, “you can try,” and then it feels more okay to give it a shot. Feeling rude happens because when you suddenly produce your phone or watch, you suddenly reveal you’ve been thinking of the transaction differently and maybe that the cashier was incorrect or ignorant to assume you would…

Sometimes, the cashier says "not ok" despite being "ok".

I'm not sure why you're being downvoted. This is a thing that happens. Usually because the cashier hasn't been trained.

These days I don't generally need to ask because the terminal have very conspicuous Apple Pay logos on them. But sometimes the terminal is kept behind the counter, so you can't see.

I've had several occasions (most recently at my vet) where I was told that it wouldn't work and I said, "Let's try it anyway," and it worked just fine.

Re: Apple Pay on pace to account for 10% of global card transactions

#169
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an interesting viewpoint. Where do you live? I would imagine you live somewhere that is not along the coastline in the USA. The only time I have ever run into any kind of social friction (percieved or actual) it was only around the time that it had just rolled out and everyone would groan and say stuff like "yeah, it says we do apple pay but it wont work" But after those initial bumps it is really prevalent an…

Portland, OR, but I never saw anyone use it in Brooklyn, either. Though NYC is incredibly backwards as far as payment technology goes, and most places strongly prefer cash. I still get your reaction sometimes, or that look that says "I'm tolerating this, but you're annoying me."

Though NYC is incredibly backwards as far as payment technology goes

Stores in NYC are reluctant to make upgrades because the profit margins are much narrower in NYC than in lesser cities.

Re: Apple Pay on pace to account for 10% of global card transactions

#170

Semi-related, but is there a way to setup Apple Pay without disclosing your fingerprint? Unlike passwords, fingerprints are not protected by the 5th Amendment https://time.com/3558936/fingerprint-password-fifth-amendmen...

Pretty sure you can use PIN, including 6-digit and alphanumeric Or FaceID

It's unfortunate that Apple Pay is tied to iCloud, so you can't use Apple's payment mechanism without also sharing a range of device data with Apple.
Post reply on HN