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Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone

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

#331

Post by munk-a »

jon-wood wrote: post #268
profmonocle wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something I was thinking about the other day is how some modern credit cards technically have four different ways to pay. Swiping pressure-sensitive paper over the raised numbers (the original method) is still possible, though I haven't seen a merchant actually do this since maybe the mid-2000's. Then you have magstripe, chip, and RFID all in the same card. Pretty impressive backwards compatibility, although I think…

On at least one of my cards magstripe is officially considered a legacy feature, I have to explicitly request that it's enabled if I'm travelling to a place likely to make use of magstripe payments, and it will only remain enabled for one or two weeks.

Just don't assume that's to do you any favors - credit card fraud is 100% on them, the removal of features is to minimize fraud and if it's a feature you still occasionally need it's being done at your expense.

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

#332

Post by mcbutterbunz »

throwaway22032 wrote: post #224

Hacker News is such a bizarre place. On the one hand, we have threads about how browsers are fingerprintable and some app is using telemetry and endless discussions on theoretical zero-knowledge protocols and the importance of cryptography and Snowden saying this and that that get voted up to the top. On the other hand, something like this comes up which is basically another step along the "no-one accepts cash" funne…

The truly bizarre/interesting part of all of this is how we assume users of a website to be of the same opinion on most topics.

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

#333

Post by XCSme »

tut-urut-utut wrote: post #85
sabjut wrote: post #14

Clarification due to a somewhat confusing title: This is about the merchant using an iPhone to accept credit cards and other Tap to Pay devices. The customer was able to pay with Tap to Pay with their iPhone for a while now.

I honestly don't see what's so revolutionary about this. Why would anyone shell out multiple hundreds of € when a device that accepts payments can be purchased for a fraction of the iPhone price? E.g the most expensive device here [1] is only 120 €, and it can also print the bill. The cheapest that does the job is a mere 20 €.

AFAIK and from my experience in many counteris PoS terminals are pretty expensive + they require you to have a constant cash flow otherwise they take it from you.

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

#334

Post by munk-a »

larkost wrote: post #225
jurmous wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We in The Netherlands are one of the most cashless societies in Europe. We mostly pay with our mobiles or contactless with banking cards. We even are "going Dutch" sharing our bills with what we call a Tikkie: One person pays the bill and then we send over instant messaging our payment request for money which can be payed directly with one click and authentication in banking app. One thing that is annoying for foreig…

For Americans visiting the Netherlands one word of caution: many of the pay terminals (especially the parking ones) do not seem to like U.S. cards, and even some the vendors from Europe. When we were on vacation there a few years ago it was a roulette game to figure out if parking meters would take my card or that of my father in law (from Hungary). The problem is that they have a local exchange there, and do not hav…

For Canadians - they've got no issue with almost all of our cards. It's just the American ones that run into issues, so your chip & pin and tap features will work splendidly abroad.

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

#335

Post by Cederfjard »

laumars wrote: post #222
stu2b50 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because a lot of people, going by the sales numbers, have iPhones? It’s more for very small businesses, who just need a quick and easy way to take card payments. Larger outfits will naturally invest in “real” PoS devices.

I can’t speak for America but in the U.K. there have been terminals that do this that small independent businesses have used for years. They connect to your phone too and work with both Android and iOS. You see taxis, street food sellers and all sorts using them. They also cheap and yet still look a hell of a lot more professional than this thing does. https://merchantmachine.co.uk/contactless/ Note that some of thes…

Sorry, by ”this thing”, do you mean an iPhone? That it looks less professional to use a phone than a dedicated card reader? I can see it, I was just genuinely a little thrown by the wording.

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

#336

Post by queuebert »

profmonocle wrote: post #209
melling wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The long slow road to contactless payments. Almost 2 decades along in the technology adoption curve. I was ready for this in 2005. https://money.howstuffworks.com/personal-finance/debt-manage... If course as the article points out, it wasn’t even new technology back then: “ Not Exactly New Tech Mobile introduced the Speedpass in 1997. Speedpass is a small device on a keychain (called a fob) that users wave in front o…

Something I was thinking about the other day is how some modern credit cards technically have four different ways to pay. Swiping pressure-sensitive paper over the raised numbers (the original method) is still possible, though I haven't seen a merchant actually do this since maybe the mid-2000's. Then you have magstripe, chip, and RFID all in the same card. Pretty impressive backwards compatibility, although I think…

Of all of these, which is the most secure?

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

#337

Post by dash2 »

Medowar wrote: post #188
throwaway894345 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I studied abroad in France in 2012--at this time, all European card readers had been chip-based for quite a while and my US credit card didn't have one. I couldn't figure out how to use them and many store clerks had no idea what to do with my magnetic-strip credit card. I went to England in 2019, at which point cards in the US had been updated to use magnetic stripes, and everyone was using tap-to-pay. It turns out…

..just dont go to Germany. We are not very advanced in that regard. Of course huge amounts of stores offer contactless paying, but generally Cash is still dominant around here. Change is slow, and currently, Cash is still king, especially with small or street merchants.

I always found that so weird! The Exportweltmeister, producing some of the most advanced equipment... and in many places you can't pay with a card at all. Why do you think it is?

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

#338

Post by praseodym »

MikeKusold wrote: post #289
throwaway22032 wrote: post #224

Hacker News is such a bizarre place. On the one hand, we have threads about how browsers are fingerprintable and some app is using telemetry and endless discussions on theoretical zero-knowledge protocols and the importance of cryptography and Snowden saying this and that that get voted up to the top. On the other hand, something like this comes up which is basically another step along the "no-one accepts cash" funne…

Paying with your phone is actually more secure than the old mag-swipe method. Your phone will tokenize your credit card information, which makes it significantly harder to track credit card usage across various merchants. Of course it isn't as private as cash, but it is a step forward from mag-swipe. Square has a good explainer if you want to read more: https://squareup.com/us/en/townsquare/what-does-tokenization...

Apple Pay only tokenizes card information once when the card is added to the Apple Wallet on a device, not for every transaction. This means that usage for an on-device tokenized card can still be tracked until the card is removed and re-added.

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

#339

Post by adventured »

jon889 wrote: post #321
NovemberWhiskey wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think until this goes out of the "NFC only" card capture space there's going to be room to compete. I don't think you can realistically run a point-of-scale business that doesn't allow mag stripe / chip payment yet. Maybe I'm wrong though.

Weird that this is US first when in the UK it’s extremely rare not to be able to use contactless. (I only say UK as I live there, but definitely there are other countries that are heavily focused on contactless)

Apple might perceive a large advantage to moving quickly in the US market right now, that there is something to gain by grabbing land there sooner rather than later (as opposed to rolling it out in various smaller markets with higher % contactless rates first).

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

#340

Post by m348e912 »

sabjut wrote: post #14

Clarification due to a somewhat confusing title: This is about the merchant using an iPhone to accept credit cards and other Tap to Pay devices. The customer was able to pay with Tap to Pay with their iPhone for a while now.

So basically apple is trying to move into square’s business model? What about chips and swiping? Will apple provide a solution for that?
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