Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone

apple.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 736 posts

Re: Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone

#141

Post by kitsunesoba »

heartbreak wrote: post #117
throwaway22032 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

I have to go out of my way to get cash. It’s not that I avoid carrying it, it’s that I never use it for anything so I don’t have it on hand. I never pay for anything with cash except tips, and the smallest bills I can get from an ATM are $20, which (except in the case of movers) is already more than a typical delivery tip.

Exactly. I haven’t carried a significant amount of cash for several years now. I’ll pull out a little if I’m meeting friends at a cash only bar or something but otherwise, it’s just an encumbrance and a liability.

Re: Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone

#142

Post by toomuchtodo »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #127
losvedir wrote: post #33

Is this only for merchants? I feel like here in the US we still don't have a great way to send money back and forth with friends and family. Zelle is decent if both parties' banks support it, but otherwise I've tried Google Pay, Paypal, Venmo, and they all have some problem or another. A lot of them (I'm looking at you PayPal) require you to give them your bank username and password!

I wonder how many bank account holders are not part of Zelle. Based on the list of banks, it seems like it must cover a good majority of people.

Roughly 140 million customers have bank accounts that support Zelle. The network does about $500B in volume annually.

FedNow instant payments will provide coverage for all US banks within 2-3 years.

Re: Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone

#143

Post by axg11 »

scarface74 wrote: post #118
SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably companies like Square and Clover are selling their own POS hardware and probably are less than happy that every iPad and iPhone running latest OS with NFC is now a competitor to their hardware. Stripe does not make hardware (as far as I’m aware) so this initial partnership makes sense.

No software company wants to sell hardware outside of Apple. They only do so when forced to support their services. Software scales with a marginal cost of $0 and is much less messy. Before smart phones and generic hardware was a thing, I worked at a company that wrote software for field services (“sending people places to do things”) we had to resell and maintain custom ruggedized windows mobile devices, mobile sate…

> No software company wants to sell hardware outside of Apple.

You're right, but it's a strategic mistake. Hardware comes with more loyalty and brand awareness. How many consumers are aware of Square (cute little hardware squircle) vs Stripe? That brand awareness allowed Square to launch Cash App.

I think this extends to the rest of big tech too. Amazon and Facebook would do well to learn from this. Amazon and Facebook's most favourably viewed products are all hardware (Alexa, Kindle, Oculus)

Re: Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone

#144

Post by arnarbi »

skeeter2020 wrote: post #104
hn_throwaway_69 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, I hope it doesn't. Tipping needs to die out. I'd prefer to have the moving company pay the movers a living wage such that a tip would be unnecessary and politely refused.

Please don't confuse the restaurant industry where tips subsidize wages with the original idea of tipping as a sign of gratitude an thanks. A tip can be a meaningful and impactful way to say "You went beyond expectation, did an awesome job and I really appreciate it". Why would you not want that option?

Because it doesn’t actually work that way and it’s in no way an “option”. In reality tipping becomes expected and people withhold it when the service does /not/ meet expectation. That’s awkward and too confrontational for a lot of people so they’ll just tip anyways.

Personally I also find it exhausting to have to judge every single service I get. So I just tip a standard amount, there’s absolutely no feedback involved. So there is no point.

There are lots of downsides with very few upsides.

Re: Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone

#145

Post by hunter2_ »

danShumway wrote: post #103
yuuu wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had movers a couple months ago and tried to tip them. Note that I don't ever carry cash and am a proponent of abolishing the Federal Reserve. I asked them for their Ethereum or Bitcoin address, and they said, "neither of us don't have that, but we take cash." I calmly tried to explain to them the evils of the Federal Reserve for around five minutes, then began to set them up with their own cryptocurrency wallets on…

I love this analogy[0], but to play devil's advocate I do a lot of tipping in cash and it's kind of a pain to break down big bills, so I can see some benefits to normalizing more digital options that actually work. My bank is digital, it doesn't have a local branch, and most ATMs around me dispense cash in $20 bills. So I can make a small purchase near the ATM if it's in a shop and then ask them to give me change in…

I solve for this by stockpiling small bills in a drawer from which to replenish my wallet. I add to the pile by specifically paying with a large bill whenever the pile starts to dwindle, and I use a card whenever possible otherwise. The trick is to not habitually spend them except in situations (like tipping) where there's no reasonable alternative.

Re: Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone

#146

Post by duxup »

bentcorner wrote: post #52
duxup wrote: post #26

Kinda weird. If a rando retail person pulls out their iPhone and asks me to tap... that's kinda strange in my mind. Something about "how do I know that isn't their personal phone?" would pop in my head. But things that seem awkward can become commonplace.

I agree - you'd hope that retailers would use cases or accessories that say "this is not a personal phone". I think I've seen employees at big retailers like Best Buy carry around devices that look like smartphones but have ergonomics more suited for retail (large black cases, belt holsters, attached receipt printer, etc.). Like a work uniform, it doesn't really serve any immediate purpose but it gives the transactio…

Yeah even a funky case would kinda change that perception I think.

Re: Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone

#147

Post by echelon »

scarface74 wrote: post #118
SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably companies like Square and Clover are selling their own POS hardware and probably are less than happy that every iPad and iPhone running latest OS with NFC is now a competitor to their hardware. Stripe does not make hardware (as far as I’m aware) so this initial partnership makes sense.

No software company wants to sell hardware outside of Apple. They only do so when forced to support their services. Software scales with a marginal cost of $0 and is much less messy. Before smart phones and generic hardware was a thing, I worked at a company that wrote software for field services (“sending people places to do things”) we had to resell and maintain custom ruggedized windows mobile devices, mobile sate…

No software company wants Apple to be anywhere near their business either. Apple greedily takes 30% and owns your customers.

Apple is bad for business. When they come to your industry, be afraid.

Re: Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone

#148

Post by axg11 »

joshvm wrote: post #138
axg11 wrote: post #20

Three interesting implications from this press release: - Stripe as the first user of the SDK vs Square: For any small business starting this spring, I can't think of a reason why they wouldn't use and iPhone+Stripe to start off. Zero hardware cost (assuming they have an iPhone), no need to wait for hardware delivery. - NFC will be coming to the iPad. - The ability to keep the same hardware but switch payment network…

There are established people in this space with very easy to setup solutions, like Zettle (PayPal) for example - who also offer connected receipt printers, barcode scanners, tablet/phone terminals and integrations with ecommerce, accounting and so on. The only real advantage I can see Apple having is if they charged a lower transaction fee, but it's going through Stripe, so no - 2.9 % + 30c versus 1.75 %. I don't thi…

Stripe might lower their rates for Tap to Pay. I also think you underestimate the friction of getting extra hardware for a small business and the advantage of using hardware you already have (iPhone).

Re: Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone

#149

Post by johnwalkr »

This seems pretty nice for small retailers.

Apple pay is not a big improvement on normal tap to pay, although it still feels cool 5 years later to pay for stuff using my watch. The gamechanger exceptions are:

- Transit. I can use my watch/apple pay for transit in many cities. From experience, I have only used it in 2 cities. Slow and annoying in Vancouver, but much less annoying than the alternatives. In Japan, instant and more convenient than using my suica card or suica function of my phone. Back in 2016 I bought an Apple watch within hours of learning that it supported suica. The only slight inconvenience is that I prefer to wear my watch on my left hand, and the card reader at gates is always on the right.

- Online commerce. Only twice have I had the good fortune of finding something I wanted to buy online available using apple pay. But wow, was it a good experience. No login[1], no entering my address or details. Just approve apple pay by fingerprint or faceid, confirm my address, and wait for the goods to arrive.

[1] I have a common name, and an email address several dozen people think they own. Making a new account on any site/service is a nightmare. If I can even make an account, Logging in 1 year later is usually impossible because someone has tried to reset "their" password 50 times. Fixing an account on any service that profits from its users (eg venmo) is usually impossible. They won't cancel an account misusing my email so long as the transactions go through.

Re: Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone

#150

Post by thefreeman »

londons_explore wrote: post #107
TIPSIO wrote: post #47

I would really like to see it become normal for tipping people this way (that isn't at a cash register / tap) but with AirDrop. For example, I recently had movers. I went out of my way to get a cash tip for them earlier. It would have been nice to skip that and just ping it at them somehow without awkwardly saying "Hey friend do you have Venmo? Apple Pay? CashApp? I'd like to tip you. What's your phone number?! Let m…

Indeed - I'm really surprised that Apple doesn't have some kind of "just pay another apple user" feature. I know that would open them up to lots of KYC requirements, as well as require them to do some of the evil things that financial laws require (eg. tracking all payments, closing accounts and banning users for certain things while not being able to tell the users why, freezing users money till they can present doc…

They do support this in iMessage, it's called Apple Cash. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207875
Post reply on HN