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Apple Working with American Express on iPhone 6 Mobile Payments

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Re: Apple Working with American Express on iPhone 6 Mobile Payments

#21

Post by X-Istence »

ajross wrote: post #3
blutoot wrote: post #2

How many average joe's carry an American Express? They need Visa/Mastercard and some well-known retailers to make this work from the get-go.

An Amex card is no harder to get than a MC/Visa. Costco has done quite well in the relevant middle-class-american-suburb market with an Amex-only policy. This isn't the barrier. The retail penetration, however, is the barrier. If you can't use these things mostly everywhere, this service is going to be no more successful than Google Wallet.

The places where I can't use my American Express have been almost non-existent. One or two mom and pop restaurants were Visa only, but that is about it.

Almost all of my monthly spending is on my American Express.

Re: Apple Working with American Express on iPhone 6 Mobile Payments

#22

Post by Moto7451 »

pilsetnieks wrote: post #18
rmc wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American Express is not commonly supported outside the USA.

Despite the name, it actually is. Not so much as Visa and MasterCard but it's still quite widespread. On the other hand, when I see an American tourist trying to pay with a Diners Club, I feel sorry for them.

How prevelant is Discover? Diners Club cards can use that network as well.

Re: Apple Working with American Express on iPhone 6 Mobile Payments

#23

Post by moonlighter »

seivan wrote: post #9
ajross wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An Amex card is no harder to get than a MC/Visa. Costco has done quite well in the relevant middle-class-american-suburb market with an Amex-only policy. This isn't the barrier. The retail penetration, however, is the barrier. If you can't use these things mostly everywhere, this service is going to be no more successful than Google Wallet.

A lot of places in Sweden don't take Amex, but do Visa/Mastercard

Ditto in Germany and other EU countries.

Re: Apple Working with American Express on iPhone 6 Mobile Payments

#24

Post by jamescun »

julianpye wrote: post #6

Apple working with 'INSERT ANY CC PROVIDER' on iPhone 6 Mobile Payments... More interesting is the question which technology will be used. NFC has to play a role here, because the technology is in the market and scalable. My weirder and more riskier bet is that NFC on the Apple wearable will refit all older iPhones with mobile payments. Until now noone has put NFC on a wearable, even though it makes most sense to hav…

While no wearable device has NFC, you can get bracelets with contactless payment chips. Barclaycard's BPay is a good example[1]

[1] https://bpayband.co.uk/

Re: Apple Working with American Express on iPhone 6 Mobile Payments

#25

Post by superuser2 »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #17
ajross wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An Amex card is no harder to get than a MC/Visa. Costco has done quite well in the relevant middle-class-american-suburb market with an Amex-only policy. This isn't the barrier. The retail penetration, however, is the barrier. If you can't use these things mostly everywhere, this service is going to be no more successful than Google Wallet.

>> "An Amex card is no harder to get than a MC/Visa." Do Amex do a debit card? In Europe (certainly in the UK) debit cards are in much wider use than credit cards and Visa and Mastercard debit cards are given with almost every bank account.

They do a particularly weird instrument called a "charge card." It's not a debit card because it's not pulling straight from a checking account, but there's no long-term line of credit either. It's like a credit card that you're actually required to pay in full every month. So no different from responsible credit card use, but still not credit.

Re: Apple Working with American Express on iPhone 6 Mobile Payments

#26

Post by personZ »

rch wrote: post #10
julianpye wrote: post #6

Apple working with 'INSERT ANY CC PROVIDER' on iPhone 6 Mobile Payments... More interesting is the question which technology will be used. NFC has to play a role here, because the technology is in the market and scalable. My weirder and more riskier bet is that NFC on the Apple wearable will refit all older iPhones with mobile payments. Until now noone has put NFC on a wearable, even though it makes most sense to hav…

They just installed NFC-ready consoles at my local Whole Foods. It could easily be coincidence, of course.

It is a coincidence, and it is odd that Apple seems to get attribution for emerging technology trends.

All of the payment vendors are or have already embraced NFC. Here in Canada, NFC is ubiquitous, and I'd be surprised if it wasn't in the US. MasterCard's PayPass, for instance, is NFC.

Re: Apple Working with American Express on iPhone 6 Mobile Payments

#28

Post by vhost- »

X-Istence wrote: post #21
ajross wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An Amex card is no harder to get than a MC/Visa. Costco has done quite well in the relevant middle-class-american-suburb market with an Amex-only policy. This isn't the barrier. The retail penetration, however, is the barrier. If you can't use these things mostly everywhere, this service is going to be no more successful than Google Wallet.

The places where I can't use my American Express have been almost non-existent. One or two mom and pop restaurants were Visa only, but that is about it. Almost all of my monthly spending is on my American Express.

That's not my experience. I have to use an Amex card for work to make IT purchases all the time and I'd say a good 25 to 30% of the places I try to use Amex at don't except it.

Re: Apple Working with American Express on iPhone 6 Mobile Payments

#29

Post by toomuchtodo »

superuser2 wrote: post #25
k-mcgrady wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> "An Amex card is no harder to get than a MC/Visa." Do Amex do a debit card? In Europe (certainly in the UK) debit cards are in much wider use than credit cards and Visa and Mastercard debit cards are given with almost every bank account.

They do a particularly weird instrument called a "charge card." It's not a debit card because it's not pulling straight from a checking account, but there's no long-term line of credit either. It's like a credit card that you're actually required to pay in full every month. So no different from responsible credit card use, but still not credit.

The benefit of the charge card (Disclaimer: I have an Amex charge card) is that you can have an extremely large line of credit for those 21-30 days. It's less for balancing your finances and more for spend management (they have great tools to see where all of the money is going, very nice management for multiple family/corp cards, etc).

I'd still trade the charge card for their Costco version.

Re: Apple Working with American Express on iPhone 6 Mobile Payments

#30

Post by rmc »

t0mas88 wrote: post #15
rmc wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American Express is not commonly supported outside the USA.

True, although in the Netherlands this seems to be changing in the last few years. A lot of restaurants and stores for clothes/shoes etc are now accepting them. Grocery stores over here almost never accept credit cards. If Apple sings some kind of exclusive deal for iPhone payments with the credit card companies I expect that half of Europe will start accepting credit cards because people willing to pay for a 600 eur…

IME from Ireland and UK, plenty of shops here accept credit cards. Visa or Mastercard.
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