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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

#41

Post by eurleif »

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.

My Whole Foods has had NFC for at least a couple of years, but they just installed new card readers too (the new ones also have NFC).

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

#42

Post by draugadrotten »

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

Percentage Fees charged for AmEx in Europe are 100-300% higher for small mom&pop stores, than for Visa/MC. Talked to my local bakery about it recently. They would be charged 5.5% of the bill if the customer used AmEx, but 2% if the customer used Visa.

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

#43

Post by sliverstorm »

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.

Probably not harder to get, but less popular for sure. They aren't accepted some places that Visa/MC is.

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

#44

Post by marcobooth »

personZ wrote: post #26
rch wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I rarely use NFC payments for any purchases. If Apple gets into the payment space, I probably will.

The reason they get credit is that people actually use the solutions they provide.

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

#45

Post by mseebach »

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.

That's assuming the technology being developed is to store an existing credit card on your phone - isn't it more likely that Apple will try to make a play that involves your app store payment setup? Presumably, the implementation would be to expose your payment setup as a "virtual" Amex on your iPhone, but without making you a direct customer of Amex, but clearing the transaction through the Amex network.

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

#46

Post by mseebach »

mrweasel wrote: post #36
Moto7451 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Discover is non-existing in at least northern Europe. American Express is a bad choice for many parts of Europe because companies are use to very low processing fees, and AMEX (and Diners Club) are very expensive credit card to process.

The Discover brand is non-existing, but Diners Club (which is owned by Discover) is somewhat popular.

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

#47

Post by personZ »

marcobooth wrote: post #44
personZ wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I rarely use NFC payments for any purchases. If Apple gets into the payment space, I probably will. The reason they get credit is that people actually use the solutions they provide.

The reason they get credit is that people actually use the solutions they provide.

The entire payment industry is moving to chip / NFC, and the parent offers up that maybe Whole Foods is prepping for Apple.

No, they aren't. They're prepping for, again, the entire payment industry. Hundreds of products across all major payment vendors. You haven't used it because the US payment space in particular is very slow, but soon enough every card you carry will feature it, and the technology will be ubiquitous, with or without Apple getting involved.

This happens repeatedly: Apple is very good at choosing the right time to enter a market -- hitting it when it hits primetime -- and then they get credit for creating the market. Incidental, but I saw an incredible conversation the other day where multiple participants were vilifying Apple's competitors for copying Apple on wearables.

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

#48

Post by ingenium »

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.

Agreed, I make almost all my purchases with my Amex card (mostly because of unlimited 2% cash back on everything). It's usually smaller independent restaurants that don't take American Express. It's something that I never really understood, because American Express in my experience charges lower transaction fees than Visa/Mastercard. When I had an Amex merchant account they charged a flat $7/month fee with no per-transaction fees, though our volume wasn't very high.

However, you have to setup the American Express account separately, which probably has a lot to do with why many mom and pop type restaurants don't take it. But now that a lot of new restaurants seem to be using processors like Square, this is a complete non-issue.

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

#49

Post by superuser2 »

tetrep wrote: post #34
superuser2 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

it's credit if you don't pay it immediately. the lending institution is extending you a line of credit for one month.

True, but AFAK with Amex there is no "lending institution." You get the card from American Express itself and it does not involve a relationship with a bank.

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

#50

Post by Theodores »

rmc wrote: post #12
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.

American Express is not commonly supported outside the USA.

Seems some people beg to differ. However AMEX costs more for the retailer, therefore, with everyone already with Visa/MC, why, as a retailer allow people to pay with AMEX? If you want to double your transaction costs, eat into your profit margin, have more admin for the book-keeper, then why not!!!

Part of the point of AMEX is that everyone is insured against scammers that bit more, hence the higher price/charges, however, in Europe where we have C+P nobody really wants AMEX - their business case just is not heard.

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