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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

#461

Post by brewdad »

iam-TJ wrote: post #217
gwd wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I read this sort of thing all of the time and it sounds as if you're just going out of your way to not carry cash for the sake of it. The drawer behind me right now has loose change in it, my jeans pocket always has a fiver. What happens when you tip that fiver away? You have to go to the ATM and replace it. It's been years since I've carried a wallet in my pocket. When I go out I have my keys in one pocket and a p…

The big problem here is you've no fall-back for when the place you're trying to pay, or their merchant services provider, has a communications/network outage or malware attack or has assets frozen - some of which affect multiple large retailers. There have been many instances over the years, even just in the U.K., where small and large stores have been unable to accept digital/network-required payments and ended up w…

Ok. But it's the rare instance where I can't postpone my purchase until the system comes back online, or just go elsewhere. I can't remember the last time the US had a nationwide outage like that. Maybe an individual store but not the entire region.

I keep an emergency $20 on me going back to the early 1990s but I've only ever needed to spend it once in almost 30 years.

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

#462

Post by ladberg »

sn1de wrote: post #448
monkeynotes wrote: post #412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am surprised Apple didn't make this a closed system and compete with Square for small businesses.

It competes with anyone selling point of sale hardware. I think Square falls into that camp, no? I wouldn't want to be in that space right now. I don't see how this doesn't usurp a big chunk of their market since it isn't even a decision between buy this or buy that, but buy that or just use the thing already in my pocket.

I assume Square makes vastly more on fees than on hardware, so the opportunity to make fees off more merchants who have a smaller barrier to entry is probably beneficial, even if they don't buy hardware.

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

#463

Post by Dma54rhs »

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?

Mainly because it gives perverse initiatives to pay employees less and tipping to be standard not unusual gratitude. Sometimes you can't have nice things because the way society collectively behaves.

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

#464

Post by samstave »

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…

Now you know why so many dutch ride bikes!

:-)

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

#465

Post by jacquesm »

TillE wrote: post #409
Medowar wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

..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.

To clarify, you can rely on nearly any supermarket or drug store to accept credit cards / contactless these days. Daily shopping is no problem. Smaller stores or restaurants, forget it. Bring cash.

In restaurants it just so happens that not all of the people are on the books and neither is all of the income.

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

#466

Post by pdpi »

bduerst wrote: post #458
baxtr wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked in the mobile industry back in 2010s. Every carrier had big shiny projects called "mobile payments" going on. They were exploring, together with banking partners how they could revolutionize contactless payments. A key factor why all these project failed wasn't the technology. As you rightly point out, the technology was already available back then. It was mainly the vast differences in business models in th…

Honestly, I think it was Apple refusing to fully support NFC until 2016 that prevented the market from jumping on contactless payments, at least in the US. They were holding something like a third of the market back from doing it which really made selling adoption to merchants difficult.

Contactless bank cards were widespread in the UK before Apple or Google had their own payment systems. I think the "real story", as it were, is that the banking industry held contactless payments way more than Apple ever did.

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

#467

Post by jacquesm »

tuyiown wrote: post #223
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…

For france: contactless on phone should be ok with widely used card providers (VISA) Beware, since covid, use of cash has dramatically fallen, last month a restaurant struggled to give me 2€ change, they didn't have 2€ in cash ! Paying in cash with the right amount should never be a problem though.

That may have been a signal that you should tip more.

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

#468

Post by dzhiurgis »

anonymouse008 wrote: post #393
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.

The real news is Apple specifically took a non competitive stance — making the API available to third parties like Stripe - rather than building in house, leveraging Apple Card connections, or similar

Not that we know of yet.

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

#470

Post by bduerst »

pdpi wrote: post #466
bduerst wrote: post #458

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I think it was Apple refusing to fully support NFC until 2016 that prevented the market from jumping on contactless payments, at least in the US. They were holding something like a third of the market back from doing it which really made selling adoption to merchants difficult.

Contactless bank cards were widespread in the UK before Apple or Google had their own payment systems. I think the "real story", as it were, is that the banking industry held contactless payments way more than Apple ever did.

Right, and with the advent of NFC in phones, US consumers didn't need the banks' permission to pay contactlessly. Despite this, contactless payment adoption was still slow in the U.S. even though most phones had NFC, it wasn't critical mass until Apple finally decided to support NFC technology.
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