Over the weekend we detailed how Apple and retailers are preparing for Apple Pay, the iPhone 6 and Touch ID-secured mobile payment system launching as soon as this week, including the setup process through Passbook. At launch Apple Pay will be supported by a number of retailers, restaurants and more including McDonald’s which plans to even accept Apple Pay from your iPhone 6 at the drive through…
The process of paying with your $650+ smartphone at a fast food drive through could potentially be risky if you have to hand over your iPhone to the window attendant, but McDonald’s training materials (received by 9to5Mac and seen above) for accepting mobile payments including Apple Pay show employees instead extending card readers to customers from the drive through window.
While the convenience of paying with your iPhone is certainly there, the process at least at the drive through still seems a little weird. With Apple Pay coming to the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus sometime this month (and later to the iPhone 5, 5c, and 5s through Apple Watch in 2015), this is how we’ll all be paying for fast food and more in the future.
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Haven’t you guys had standard NFC in the states for ages like we have in the UK? Procedure isn’t exactly the same except I use my phone instead of my card to pay.
no, the banks here are cheap bastards who wait until they are forced to improve anything that costs money.
Weird. The UK really are ahead of the US in terms of payments. We’ve had contactless for 2 years even in little independent retailers who just get the terminal from streamline who’s latest card handset just has NFC built in as standard, so any contactless card (or Apple pay phone once activated) could use it.
Plus we’ve had chip and pin for about 15 years now, crazy you still use the very insecure signature chip in the states.
The only different Apple Pay will make here is the Touch ID should allow us to make payments of any amount, at the moment contactless is limited to about £20, simply because you just tap the card with no security, so if you’ve stolen it from someone you can just go round tapping it – fortunately only cafes and small purchases places accept at the moment so they couldn’t do much damage.
Currently only a handful of Credit Card companies in the US even offer the chip and signature card.
The number of chip cards and NFC terminals will quickly grow over the next year before the requirement of retailers be responsible for fraud for chip less cards.
Knowing merchants will be receiving new terminals I think is a major reason picked this year to release Apple Pay. The cost to upgrade is negated because because business will be upgrading to the chip readers, so having a chip reader that includes NFC is a no brainier for must merchants.
The banks aren’t the only cheap bastards. The vendors also refuse to upgrade hardware until they are absolutely broken. Try to get all the mom and pop stores, the smaller franchises, to upgrade their hardware when they “just got” new hardware “not too long ago” (translate: almost a decade ago). It’s also the industry lacking competition where simple payment terminals cost an arm and a leg.
The major difference is that US banks charge up to 30% interest for credit card debt. And so it is cheaper for them to eat the card fraud.
However, chip-and-pin is becoming more common. Two of my three cards are NFC. However the vast majority of terminal devices here are magstripe devices.
You need to find a new bank….or improve your credit score…
The US is last with pretty much everything (though not all things). Don’t tell them that though, they believe it’s the other way around.
And they think the iPhone is US… While it is build in China, Chips are made by Korean, Chipmachines are made by Dutch, NFC chips are Dutch made also, etc.
No, we spent our efforts on dental technology instead.
…and taking care of the world.
Wow – bit of a generalisation about the brits isn’t it? Two can play that game of course. It’s just as well you yanks did spend your efforts on dental technology – after all sugar rots your teeth as well as give you all fat asses.
Apple Play isn’t just NFC. The NFC only provides the contact less portion. The payment process itself is totally different, where no credit card details pass through the payment system, only a unique one-time token.
I don’t know what everyone is talking about. We don’t call them “NFC” per say, but there’s wireless loops that accept NFC chips (originally, those built into cards) on many, many card readers in the U.S. There’s also chip-and-pin readers on many modern card readers at most stores. Its just that Americans aren’t yet aware what the slot on the bottom of the register does, or what the little blue sideways Wifi symbols mean.
Not bad.
Oh No – Apple is making the “Fattening of America” so much easier. ;)
Thankfully – McDonalds and I are mutually synonymous so I won’t be using my iPhone there!
It is great to hear that McDonalds is synonymous with you. Do you get to eat there for free?
You Keep Using That Word, I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means.
My name is Inego Montoya. McDonalds killed my father. Prepare to die.
Wow, this is cumbersome. I Don’t like the idea of having to “bother” the person behind the counter to lean a device out the window. Kind of nullifies the convenience factor.
how is that more bothering than extending your arm with money in it? i swear some people do not deserve all these nice things
This has got to be the dumbest comment I have read all day!
I was imagining fixed NFC readers at the drive through windows. Something attached to the wall. Something that put the risk of a dropped iPhone entirely on the customer. The NFC scanner does look like much larger than your basic laser scanner. I can imagine them dropping it as they pass it through the DT window. Accidentally hitting a phone, maybe. I’m sure the devil is in the details, but I hope it has a good range and isn’t limited to something like 2″.
— “Wow, this is cumbersome. I Don’t like the idea of having to “bother” the person behind the counter to lean a device out the window. Kind of nullifies the convenience factor.” —
So instead you hand your entire card to the person with all your credit card numbers exposed.
That’s what we’re trying to eliminate!
I imagine that over time they will install the NFC readers below the windows like I have seen at some Pollo Tropicals and other drive thrus. I do agree that waving my phone to have them reach over is weird but I do want to try it out.
If the readers are not fixed to the building (my local Wendy’s has them fixed) , I see a lot accidental bumps and phone drops to the pavement below (and possibly because of the windows attendant trying to pull the reader back to them) – This isn’t a very good implementation if you ask me. Now your phone is on the ground, probably cracked and scratched, you can’t open your door far enough to get out and get it because it will hit the window or building, so you pull up a few feet so you can get out and now you’ve run over your phone. Somebody better come up with a better plan that this! #McDonaldsGate :o)
Those clumsy f*cks deserve to lose their phone then if they’re not capable of holding it properly in their hand.
until you drop yours and go whining to apple about it.
McDonalds used to have the paypass terminals attached to the ordering screen/speaker. They should go back to this method it’s better then being attached to the building or tmhavibg the cashier sticking a reader out the window.
The plan is 🍎⌚️.
In Canada, we’ve been using our chip-enabled credit cards to tap against the retailer’s payment device for quite awhile now–including McDonalds extending their reader to us in the drive-thru. It’s very simple and works quickly. It’s not weird at all.
We’ve had those too. Ive used my Chase card NFC chip at Mcdys many times….. THIS ISN’T NEW
Not much different than at Starbucks when paying with your phone.
You hold out your phone, and they grab their scanner and boom done…. and this should be even better since you won’t have to go through the issues of the scanner not seeing your screen because of it being too bright outside!
this payment fits perfectly to the MacDonalds users :) dumb ass who eats cheat doesn’t deserve better :)
After step 4 is where the thief comes jumping out of the bush and grabs the iPhone.
If they really bother to steal a phone that will be way below its unlocked value then he deserves the phone. The thief will only be able to sell it for parts and they will probably register as stolen sometime down the line.
Extending the NFC device out the window is a better solution so that the device used to make payments remains reliable.
Jack in the Box has card readers right outside the pay window but they seldom work, likely due to the constant shift in temperature and being exposed to rain, hail and in some areas snow. If McDonald’s wants to ensure that the experience is fool proof and something people will want to use they need to protect the readers that accept Pay payments.
I try to avoid fast food but the temptation to get a Big Mac meal and whipping out my phone to do is very alluring (I suppose I could get a salad).
So excited for this. The future of mobile payments is only days away!!!
I can already see someone extending their device out of their car window and a thief hiding nearby and swipes the phone from their hand. Then also there could be some shady McDonald’s worker that may also decide to swipe it from their hand. Seems kinda risky to me. If you’re gonna use Apple Pay, it will probably be better to use it in the store rather than through the drive-thru. IMO.
Really? And how is that thief going to unlock the phone? Stolen iPhones are useless thanks to Activation Lock…unless one is stupid enough to not have Find My iPhone turned on.
So im guessing that there is no technology out there to have the NFC antenna stationed outside under the window but the actual machine inside? weird.
Mobile payment systems are already enormously popular in some parts of the world, not only at “Mac” Donald but you might be surprised that just 15 percent of North American consumers said they were “ready” to buy more with mobile devices, compared to more than 80% in Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Africa.
According to a report from the U.S. Federal Reserve, just 12% of U.S. consumers surveyed had made a mobile payment during the previous year. In a global study conducted by business software maker SAP, researchers found that emerging markets, such as South Africa, Saudi Arabia or China, are adopting mobile commerce at a much higher rate than mature markets, such as the United States, United Kingdom and Japan.
Why is the United States lagging so far behind?
There are a number of factors. Brett Nuckles of BusinessNewsDaily identifies several of them, including lack of consumer awareness, security concerns, and lack of a clear and compelling benefit for consumers to use a smartphone instead of a credit card. As SAP’s Diarmuid Mallon told Angles, “In the U.S., hype around the technology has created a complicated, disparate landscape of mobile commerce solutions, and has, in turn, failed to educate consumers about the benefits of mobile services and slowed adoption.”
Fact is, U.S. retailers are absolutely unsure about “which mobile payment technology will prevail”.
Funny how they are showing it in the training materials with a Galaxy
No, The device in the training guide is a Blue 5c.
Both
So, the same way as chip and pin… The retailer gives you the terminal, and doesn’t touch your card….
I see a lot of dropped phones at drive throughs. Insure those slippery guys.
Especially on rainy days… Maybe these restaurants will finally invest in awnings.
Other than using an iPhone this is almost identical to how I pay now.
In Canada McDonald’s has Tap to pay readers. You can either hand the card to the cashier and let them tap.
Or they will hand you the reader (on a long tether) and you can tap.
Apple Pay will just allow me to use my phone instead of my card with the attendant increased security. Which presumably means that the Tap to pay limit (generally about $50) will be increased.
This is such a no brainer to anyone who has used Tap to pay. Its faster and easier than chip and pin. And now it is more secure.