CVS Pharmacy has decided to disable all NFC terminals in all of its stores after it was discovered that Apple Pay would work with the hardware. CVS sent a memo to its stores, which was posted by SlashGear, saying that Apple Pay was not a supported payment type and that customers would have to choose some other payment method in order to check out.
The notice also explains the reason for the change: CVS is currently part of a consortium of retailers attempted to create an alternative mobile payment method called CurrentC. The new system isn’t based on NFC. It is, however, based on something you’ve probably seen before…
Please note that we do not accept Apple Pay at this time. However we are currently working with a group of large retailers to develop a mobile wallet that allows for mobile payments attached to credit cards and bank accounts directly from a smart phone. We expect to have this feature available in the first half of 2015.
If customers attempt to pay for a transaction with Apple Pay, a message will prompt both customer and cashier for a different form of payment. Please instruct cashiers to apologize to the customer and explain that we do not currently accept Apple Pay, but will have our own mobile wallet next year.
CurrentC, which was detailed today by TechCrunch, is, quite frankly, a horrible attempt at creating a mobile payment system that doesn’t rely on technology like NFC (which Apple doesn’t allow third-parties to access at this time), and instead uses a complex system of—I kid you not—QR codes.
How does it work? Well, get this: first the payment terminal shows you a QR code which you scan using your phone. The phone then presents a QR code, which the cashier scans using a separate QR code reader. Here’s the best worst part: because these stores want to save money by cutting out the payment networks like MasterCard and Visa in these transactions, they will link CurrectC directly to your checking account, not your credit card.
Sounds great so far, right? Hang on, we’re not done yet. CurrentC is specifically designed to make it easier to track customers’ shopping habits. While Apple Pay was designed with privacy in mind, CurrentC is essentially the opposite, and was built for the sole purpose of making you easier to track by storing your receipts and other data on the service’s cloud server.
Oh, and it’s going to need access to your health data for some reason.
Helpful diagram via TechCrunch
Because the coalition of retailers wasting time on this system has decided that any store using it must use it exclusively, you can expect the following stores to adopt the QR-code based system in leiu of Apple Pay or any other NFC payment system:
- 7-Eleven
- Bed, Bath & Beyond
- Best Buy
- Chilis
- CVS
- Dunkin Donuts
- K-Mart
- Lowe’s
- Sears
- Target
- Wal-Mart
- Wendy’s
- And about 46 others
But hey, they’re going to offer coupons to people who use it. That’s totally worth forking over your health data and checking account info, right?
CurrentC is expected to roll out in stores some time in 2015, but you can already download the CurrentC application for free on the iTunes App Store. You can also rate it and leave reviews, for whatever that’s worth.
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You can say that there is no privateC.
They just lost a customer base that screams loyalty. Pure stupidity.
QR codes? You have got to be kidding… I was singing your praises last week when I paid for my items using ApplePay… CurrentC is one of the worst implementations of privacy invasion, (I mean, customer tracking,) I have ever seen. Is there a drug store chain who publicly supports ApplePay, supports customer privacy, so we may give them our business?
Because we know TARGET has taken care of all of our data in the past I’ll say yay!.
“Directly to your checking account” I say nay nay.
CurrentC seems to be using tricks avoid consumer credit protection laws and to save them processing fees…. which your bank, perhaps being part of the consortia, would have YOU pay.
The customer takes on more than their share of risks and fees and the customer loses privacy. Shameful.
Well… there will be no competence for me between the 3 major pharmacies. The only one left is Walgreens. Hmm, that save my mind. Thx to the “great” C. I am an “A” student instead of a “C” one. LOL
I wonder what will happen if Apple and Google take the app down
I imagine that’s almost be a given if they attempt to access health data for a payment solution. Seems like a clear cut case of abuse of health data.
Keep fingers crossed they do. I’m so disappointed in Target. The rest on the list can get bent.
That image below this story shows Target as being part of the retailers using Pay. So, did they change their mind?
And this CurrentC noise sounds like a bunch of dumb BS. So you have to scan a QR code with your phone, then the cashier has to scan the QR code your phone produces, on top of letting them track you, have access to your checking account info, and your health data?
Da fuq are they thinking??
I’m guessing since they are bypassing the credit card companies, any fraud that happens is on the customers and not the stores. Yeah, that’s gonna go over well.
You can use Apple pay in Target’s app but not in stores
JackBG is correct. nsxrebel, the specific image you’re seeing is actually the list of apps that support Apple Pay, not physical locations. Starbucks is in the same boat. Only accepts Apple Pay in-app, not at its stores. Uber doesn’t even have physical stores to accept it at, etc etc.
Target won’t be supporting Apple Pay at their checkout counters it seems.
Apple should play ball and take it down from the App Store
blah… this is going to be like when citi rolled out their NFC doggles and cards at POS terminals. 5% of their customers used it. and with the new to US more secure cards coming in a year or so i don’t see why people will bother. this method adds more steps then ApplePay and could probably be faked a lot easier.
What’s even more ridiculous, by trying to put a stop on Pay, now they are shutting out all those other Google Wallet users, since they are turning off all NFC transactions.
My guess for these merchants’ reasonings could be one of two possibilities, or both:
– Apple Pay is used by those who can afford a high end phone. To some extent (not sure how much), the same probably applies to other NFC enabled devices. Those users, as a whole, probably have good enough credit to own credit cards. Perhaps this profile doesn’t represent the *majority* of their customers (unlike, say, a Whole Foods).
– CurrentC not only appeals to these merchants as they can save on credit card transactions fees, but perhaps also to the *majority* of their customers, who either: a) tend to not own high end devices, or b) tend to typically pay with check or debit and/or don’t own/use/aren’t able to get credit cards.
Certainly, these merchants have the capability to easily analyze and understand their customers’ shopping and payment habits better than anyone else.
Whatever we may think of CurrentC, some of these companies are behemoths of industry and are not exactly run by dummies, I can assure you that. So there has to be some sensible/valid reason (save money while catering to your largest customer base seems to make the most sense to me, but again, it’s just a guess).
Question remains however, why not have both options available, and allow each to appeal to its relevant demographic? Maybe they saw how good Apple Pay was and didn’t want it to gain a foothold or early advantage. Maybe they will allow both at a later time, or simultaneously, and hence all the “not at this time” caveats …
These are interesting times.
Most smartphones are iPhones and Galaxy’s, both of which (iphone 6) use NFC for payment since Galaxy’s can use Google Wallet.
I really hope both Apple and Google simply ban CurrentC from their app stores for any reason they can think of and simply strangle this nonsense. The retailers embracing it are total assholes, no I will not use a system linked directly to my bank account which also tracks all my habits and potentially shares health info. FUK U guys!
The more likely reason is that CurrentC seems to allow merchants to share and traffic in highly personal and highly profitable shopping data.
The Apple Pay ecosystem provides a layer of anonymity. But it is (1) here today, and (2) uses the NFC standard.
It seems obvious to the casual overseer that CurrentC has many fewer consumer protections, and is working to build a mega-dosier of all Americans. And that would allows a participating merchant to more readily dig into your life in order to strong-arm you into being their customer. If a merchant knows that you bought a box of cigarettes at Walmart, they’re going to push a nicotine patch to you at CVS, and the local hospital will sell you their anti-smoking group therapy, and your health insurance will bill you for violating their “personal heath” rules.
As long as it doesn’t break a specific law, it is fully legal. And these groups have so many wealthy participants that they can basically write the laws with their powerful lobby arms.
Immoral? Yes. Evil? Absolutely. Shameful? You bet. But also profitable. And that trumps all.
They’re insteucted to lie and say they “don’t support Apple Pay at this time.” but what they really mean is they don’the ever intend to, especially after they found out they inadvertently were. This makes me so angry, I can’t believe a company would hurt their own bottom line like that. CVS sucks!
Its being done by people who are anti-apple. I think ApplePay is a great idea and if Travis Credit Union does not get on board they will no longer be my everyday bank.
I assume Apple can kill the CurrentC app if they want to retaliate for CVS blocking Apple Pay.
great point. i am sure google will do the same. it just pains me to see any value in this decision. i think the next few years will see this struggle play out and the retail chains loosing. after all they are not the ones buying devices for us to use. the consumer is always right and if they want to use pennies to pay then so be it! oh BTW, stock prices will take a hit Monday!
Yep. Apple should be considering pulling the plug on that App, and thus the entire service, on the grounds that it, “Puts customers personal information and financial status in jeopardy.”
I don’t think Google or Apple can block an app in retaliation as long as it meets their App Guidelines. All the CurrentC app is doing is scanning / generating a qr code.
Absolutely just as the merchants turned off their NFC terminals, due to conflict of interest, Apple should be able to pull the app. They have done so with other apps in the past, stating the app duplicates a service already provide by Apple.
If you want to reverse this, voice your opinion and et them know what you think: http://www.cvs.com/help/email-customer-relations.jsp
Huge fail on their part but for me but for me, the immediate notification you can get when one of your passbook credit cards is used (Apple pay or not) is still worth it regardless.
What this article (understandably) fails to note and is particularly galling with CVS (and the others of course) is that this intentionally makes it harder for me to use their stores and pay as a severely disabled person.
Below is the complaint I just sent CVS explaining why (similar version to Rite-Aid noting periodic purchases there).
I truly think an ADA lawsuit is warranted against all of these companies for denying a ‘reasonable accommodation’ because it literally costs the merchants nothing. In fact, they are spending money to RIP OUT the accommodation. What next? Are they going to spend money to rip out the curb cuts I use to drive me wheelchair inside?
Instead of accommodating me with Apple Pay, in order for me to be allowed to shop at their stores, they want to force me to give up my medical and other data to use a system that as detailed in this article likely would be unusable given my disability and at least far more difficult and painful.
I tried Apple Pay at a Subway and it was a god-send. This might seem trivial to a lot of people (or at least the soulless jerks at CVS and Rite-Aid), but it is not when you have a disability like I and hundreds of thousands more do.
“I spend more than $15,000/year at CVS on medications and other purchases and will be leaving if CVS continues to block Apple Pay.
1. I am severely disabled. Apple Pay allows me to easily pay without trying to adjust usually broken tilt mechanisms, pull out a wallet, pull out a credit card, swipe without dropping, grasp a small stylus, and write my name on a small screen. I am am not alone.
It is a very easy and ‘reasonable accommodation’ to allow the disabled to use Apple Pay to avoid these very serious problems.
Blocking Apple Pay appears to be an ADA violation under these circumstances.
2. I will never use CurrentC to allow CVS to collect sales data on me and risk exposing my most private transactions intentionally or otherwise. Apple Pay collects no such info to be leaked or misused.
3. Although Walgreen’s is more difficult for me to reach, it will be worth the effort if CVS does not reverse itself and purposefully makes my disability harder to address.
Well these guys aren’t getting my money.
The single fact that CurrentC is linked to your checking account is the only reason I need to not use it. They’re trying to avoid paying the credit transaction fees, but those fees also go to helping protect their customers from fraud. Unless, for some crazy reason, I write a paper check / cheque, or make an ACH arrangement, no one is getting to my checking account directly.
And like someone else already said: Cutting off NFC functionality not only hits Apple Pay, but any other NFC payment service.
This will explain why Walmart isn’t on Apple Pay. (Not that I want to shop there, just that it would be a big coverage boost.) I can’t wait to see CurrentC go under.
Currentc uses tokenization with credit or debit cards like apple pay. Difference between currentc and apple pay is that currentc is working with retailers while apple is working with banks. If apple pay wants to succeed it would need retailers to have devices. Apple did not announce any new retailers that will support nfc payments. All the places that take apple pay are places that has nfc payment terminals for years now. With all the big name retailers partnering up there isn’t much left for apple. Don’t be surprise to see us losing more nfc terminals. I been using google wallet for years but its sad that we’re losing nfc terminals.
Sounds like some two faced blah, bla bla blah. These people, “all the retailers in support of this C stuff”, are trying to retaliate. Apple was always in positon to make money off of mobile payments. They invented this segment of allways having our mobiles on us. They have managed the game and have maintained position regardless of failed attemped to due so. They’ve found the right formula and now two faced retailers want to rebeal
How long until it is off of the App Store in Google play?
Not soon enough…
Sounds like some two faced blah, bla bla blah. These people, “all the retailers in support of this C stuff”, are trying to retaliate. Apple was always in positon to make money off of mobile payments. They invented this segment of allways having our mobiles on us. They have managed the game and have maintained position regardless of failed attemped to due so. They’ve found the right formula and now two faced retailers want to rebel all of a sudden. That’s a direct stomach punch just right after saying they would agree. C stuff plus, kiss my &&@)€£€!!! Apple invented this stuff. Get over it. It’s too late. But really, I didn’t know how you couldn’t compete in the first place. Electronico’s, on person. THEY INVENTED IT. Get over it. Don’t go against it. Who wants to be on that BlackList.
Hey Check out the CurrentC site where they brag your account is protected by a 4 digit passcode.
This reminds me of DIVX from the 90s—an abuse of a technology for nefarious corporate gains wrapped up in the flimsiest customer marketing push.
As Tim Cook already said: “As it turns out, most people who have worked on this have started by focusing on creating a business model that was centered around their self-interest rather than focusing on the user experience.” And now they are forcing their customers to use CurrentC. As a customer, i would like to pay the way, that i want, not that the retailer wants me to!
Fuck CVS & Rite-Aid, Walgreens it is for me going forward.
Ill shop at whole foods duane reade and walgreens. No sweat off my back.
well if i was in charge of apple i would remove CurrentC technology off the iTunes store in favour of apple pay they, people should have the choice which one to use if a company blocks my product then ill block theirs
In the UK the major banks have been issuing ‘Contacless’ Debit and Credit cards for some time. Basically NFC enabled cards. I am sure US banks have been or are about to do the same.
This means that any retail outlet stopping NFC payments is not only cutting themselves off from Apple Pay or Google Wallet but anyone with a recently issued Credit/Debit card. As more people are issued new cards or upgrade their handsets these retailers will feel more and more isolated.
Good luck to them!!
I hope Apple Pay takes off quickly, otherwise it’s going to be a mess.
For the first time, ever, customers want Apple to remove this App from the store and Google to do the same. I don’t live in the US but after what I’ve read I simply wouldn’t trust this App nor any retailers who choose to use it.
Thank you for that list – It’s now in my Notes on my iPhone, in the note labeled “Do Not Shop Here.”
Good Idea, resellers – make yet another insecure, tracking payment system that will phail!
(Slaps forehead and mutters “Doh”)
The memos in the article you quoted were sent to rite aid stores not cvs.
Where is the twitter-gate? Im sure if this exploded on twitter, these retailers would change their tune.
Go take a look at the CVS and Rite-Aid Facebook pages. Their executive teams are gonna have a problem on their hands come Monday morning. I’d love to be a fly on the wall at their Monday morning executive meetings :)
Well I’ll help make it easy for CVS, No more shopping at CVS for my Family. Gee… that was easy, But it feels good for some reason, Got to keep a list of all the C objectors, I always had to get A’s in School, not c’s.
This is easy. Starts today…………..Go Apple!
If you get fraud on your credit card today, for instance, you can contest it and will get cleared eventually, but at least you still have your funds in your bank account to buy food and pay bills in the mean time.
If you get defrauded directly on your bank account, you are left floating up the proverbial creek, while it is being investigated. You’d get the money back eventually, but if the fraudsters completely drained your bank account, it would be your responsibility to fight all those late fees you rake up while having no funds to pay your bills.
Option A – wait for chip & pin cards
Option B – good old cold hard cash
How is this not some sort of EMV specification breach?
The other option you left out…. stop going to CVS and go to Walgreens which in most cases is right across the street on one of the other corners.
CurrentC = A joke. CVS = A place I will no longer shop.
And to all the other stores, I won’t be your customer either.
From what I read above CurrentC will accept credit cards too so the argument that you must link your checking ac is BS. CVS and others have a right to create a walled garden just as Apple has created its own.
Well, I read that it would take select store credit cards, probably not all so I stand corrected. Though, if it does take other credit cards, it could possibly become viable because of hardware independence.
Sure – they can create any plan they like. And we can decide whether or not we want to use it.
Apple Pay is not really a “walled garden”. It accepts major credit cards and the same credit card protections apply. Apple has worked with EMV to incorporate the tokenization standard rather than doing a roll-your-own (as the old Apple would have done). It even adopted NFC which was a surprise to me.
MCX is not a walled-garden either but it certainly is a lot more so than Apple Pay. From what I understand, CurrentC will NOT accept “major” credit cards such as Visa, Mastercard and American Express. Perhaps it will be able to use store cards – I don’t know.
CurrentC is one of those things that would have had a hard time getting off the ground anyway. But now that the public is getting a taste of the true convenience of Apple Pay, CurrentC is going to feel like a bloated pig. And a pig that is stalking you to market products. I predict CurrentC will be a huge failure. It might have had a small chance if Apple had never upstaged it so badly.
I’d imagine CurrentC has been in development for a while, and while they were conceptualizing the idea the big cats at the top probably thought, “You know what’s really big and has the potential to grow and has security and convenience written all over it?… QR CODES!! Yea! High fives everybody!”
What happened to free market. Let customers decided the method of payment. Also, as another roster suggested Target has shown they are not the ideal custodian of the customer’s private information.
CurrentC looks primitive. A stupid QR code? I won’t be visiting any CVS locations anymore. I have a Walgreens that’s closer anyway, and they support Apple Pay. It’s laughable to see Target included in this list. You would think that they of all companies would want to hop onboard something that is more secure. Instead, they prefer to go with less advanced payment options. I also don’t want my shopping habits to be tracked. It’s no one’s business what I buy, where I buy, and how often I buy something. This is what you get when companies deploy systems that are meant to squeeze extra profit from the customers rather than deploy something that improves the customer’s buying experience and protects their privacy.
limiting customer choice is never a good thing and if this system gets hacked you are going to see these Apple Pay holdout come running to Apple.
They have a fantastic rating of 1 stat on the App Store with 415 lifetime reviews. I’ve never seen any app that low.
Any chance we could bother you to post a screenshot? And perhaps a screenshot of some of the “feedback” being left? ;)
What a joke. No one has ever even HEARD of these services, in any other other context than anti-ApplePay,
This is going to crash and burn quickly, and what a disappointment that we even have to go through this as all it does it delay inevitable ApplePay adoption at those retailers.
Probably because it’s in a private pilot.
http://www.mcx.com/downloads/Merchant_Customer_Exchange_Unveils_Consumer_Brand_09032014.pdf
I tried getting the site to post this story on Thursday.
Wait a minute. It might get popular among Android fans.
What are you talking about, Jurgis? Android has had Google Wallet, the thing that Apple Pay is based off of, for a long, long time.
In fact, Apple Pay is the best thing that has ever happened to Android users – Apple’s legwork to get retailers to support Apple Pay has set up the systems for Google Wallet to use too – just as it should be. Apple, albeit accidentally I’m sure, have actually encouraged competition by getting Google Wallet supported in far more chains than before.
This is wholly a good thing. There’s no reason multiple NFC-based payment systems can’t coexist – we iPhone folks can use Apple Pay, Android users can use Google Wallet, maybe both of us can use something else entirely one day, like PayPal (heaven forbid!) or similar. Which, of course, is why this CurrentC thing is /really/ bad for consumers – it denies us the use of all of the above.
Let’s give Target direct access to our checking account. Sure! CurrentC is dead before it even gets out of the gate. First, they have pissed off Apple and Google fans. Secondly,CurrentC uses QR codes. QR codes! Hello 2006.
QR codes remind me of the Cue Cat that Radio Shack pushed. Customers had to use a USB attached cat shaped scanner in order to access websites for deals and coupons. It failed because it was much easier to just type in the website address. QR codes can be useful for things like boarding passes, and I recently used a QR code on my iPhone to get into an Oktoberfest event here in Addison, TX. That’s about it. Adding on scanning a QR code is an unnecessary extra step in the purchasing process. I could swipe my card and enter a PIN faster.
Agreed! It will be a cold, frozen day in hell before I give anyone the likes of MCX access to not only my health data, but also (as is now being reported by users at MacRumors), my social security number and drivers license?!?! Are you freaking KIDDING ME?!?!
MCX, go shove it where the sun don’t shine and disappear! Pay all the way!
I’d take a guess the reason is even though NFC payments (Google Wallet, etc.) have been around for a bit they haven’t seen widespread usage. Apple has a loyal fan base and once Apple says they have something new or magical their fanboys love to go out and use it as much as they can, partially to show off and the like,
The CurrenC consortium has a future option and rather than keep NFC payments now, and thus get more momentum going for NFC, they block it with the hopes that the new CurrenC payment option takes a foothold.
They are taking a risk of losing some customers in the hopes to push CurrenC when it debuts.
While NFC might not have a major foothold here in the states it is widely available in other countries around the globe. Google Wallet not taking off more, is Google’s fault and Apple Pay has the ability to really hit it off here in the states. This is ridiculous though. To think that major retailers are deciding to not take payment is pretty weird to say the least.
I don’t shop and do my utmost to try to avoid most of these places at all costs for a variety of reasons. Mostly because of their inane policies. This action justifies it even more for me. I vote with my money and will spend it elsewhere. And I can attest that CVS no longer works. It worked on Friday and then suddenly not on Saturday and the employees had no update as to why. So yes, CVS no longer takes Apple Pay.
It’s just as simple for me to to go Walgreens as anywhere else and yes I agree that no one should have direct access to my checking account or health data.
This would be so astronomically illegal in Europe.
For many reasons, but just the explotation of QR-codes in this incredibly offensive manner is way up there. What have those poor QR-codes done to deserve this? Are they not having a large enough image problem already?
A credit card or Debit card compromised is very easy to deal with… you just close the card. A checking account is promised… you have to close it. Think about about changing your Direct Deposit, ACHs, and the prospect people wiping out your account and work with your bank to get it back… NO thanks Current C. I like A in apple pay, not C. my mama ain’t raised no f00l
Don’t be surprised to see Merchant Customer Exchange partner stores start accepting Apple Pay after Apple adds customer awards for using Apple Pay.I think it’s a major reason Apple is trying to add loyalty rewards this year instead of next October like originally planned.
Besides escaping processing fees Currentc main thing is loyalty rewards for using the system. Right now Currentc is in a private pilot. Customers won’t be willing to give all these stores access to their checking accounts.
Loyality rewards from Apple Pay will most likely get MCX stores to turn their NFC terminals back on or keep them from disabling them.
Please don’t kid yourself… While having the ability to use loyalty cards is just one part of the equation, the top reasons for them doing this is to escape CC provider transaction fees, and most importantly, being able to build the largest consumer profile DB ever compiled, and then buy / sell that information. This is all to do with more invasion of consumer privacy than anything else…
And unfortunately, if you look at some of the “clientele” that stores the likes of Wal-Mart attracts, I’d be willing to bet those idiots will agree to go along with MCX and CurrentC, so long as they get their 5% off on Cambell’s soup …
However, CurrentC may not even make it to operational status for the following reasons:
1. Alibaba’s attempt to use QR codes for mobile payments in China failed miserably because it was too easily hacked.
2. Banks and credit unions, citing the Alibaba failure, may NOT allow savings and checking accounts to link to CurrentC.
3. Apple and Google may not allow CurrentC apps in the iOS Apple Store and Google Play store, respectively.
4. The FTC and/or Department of Justice Antitrust Division may start asking questions on whether the exclusivity deals to use CurrentC could violate the Sherman and Clayton Antitrust Acts.
Perhaps people should start filing complaints to the FTC and DoJ to raise their awareness about this system, instead of sending messages to the corporate dumb asses at CVS and Rite-Aid, which will likely just get placed into Junk folders anyways?
This is so stupid. Best buy?!? I mean come on I was expecting them to be one of the first to adopt Apple Pay jeez. No way would I ever use this service
Time to let CVS that they just created loyal Walgreens customer. If enough people contact them, maybe they will realize the error of their ways: http://www.cvs.com/help/email-customer-relations.jsp?callType=store&topicid=200018
After doing a little digging around, it would appear MCX and CurrentC is at present confined to the USA. Being in Canada, I can (for now) breathe a sigh of relief, as I’m grateful I would’t have to start dealing with this BS. Once Pay arrives here, I will be making a concerted effort to using nothing but Pay to ensure my CC information is kept safe and secure, and that no one builds a “profile” on my shopping habits.
ANY agency that requires me to provide direct access to my bank account and siphons my health data is going to get the finger from me. What I find most appalling about this move, is they’re shunning ALL NFC-based devices / methods, including Pay, Google Wallet, and contactless CC’s, all because they want to build a massive profile on their consumers and target us with yet more advertising?!
Here’s hoping some regulatory agency in the USA quickly steps in to shut these bastards down, and that both Apple and Google pull that god-aweful CurrentC invasive app from their app stores!
Screw CVS and other place that will turn off NFC. I used Apple Pay for the first time at Walgreens today it was freakin awesome. Quick, easy, secure and the immediate notification of the charge in Passbook (for ant card in there) is awesome. They’ll shut off NFC, I’ll shut off my business with them. Freakin ridiculous.
Edison, is that your response for every blog post? Screw off.
Which is why I don’t plan to ever use my phone to pay for anything, ever.
Enjoy your insecure old magstripe CC’s then… Man, some people are so short sighted, it’s astonishing…
I hope Google and Apple pull their app out of their respective app stores. This app clearly tries to bypass consumer privacy and protections. On top of that, health data can be tracked? Oh hell no.
Direct access to my bank account is just so much a non-starter. I don’t even use a debit card anywhere other than the bank ATM.
And if their app requires access to health data then Apple will just point them at the developer guidelines that prohibit that.
This is so, so wrong in so many ways it’s almost beyond belief. It’s like a script from a B-grade horror movie.
Boycott CVS & Rite Aid
http://youtu.be/9ZHusVNa1_A
Apple pay is the quickest, fastest, most secure and easiest form of paying for an item in a store I have seen. I do not agree with these stores that are now disabling their NFC systems to not accept Apple Pay. I think they are cutting off their respective nose’s to spite their face.
(1) Apple pay would drastically reduce time spent in line. Because every time I have used Apple pay so far in the 6 days since it’s initiation it only took 2 seconds max to get an approval and a receipt on apple pay.
(2) It is not good business sense to piss off your customers.
(3) Since the majority of I-Phone 6 and 6+ owners usually have a higher buying power. These merchants will be left with only the poor patronizing their stores.
(4) It however, seems that they are mostly after the poor with the adaptation of the MCX or CurrentC system they want to utilize. Since this will give them direct access to peoples bank accounts. I’ll be damned if I will give them access to my account.
(4) It would not be so bad if their current system did not allow for the use of Apple Pay. However it does because it is the NFC system. Both CVS and Rite Aid’s system accepted payments by way of Apple pay for the first three days of this week. Now to willfully disconnect the machines from the NFC system to me is malicious. This shows little disregard for their clients and prospective clients. (Their machines now say ” We do not accept Apple Pay”) That had to be programmed into the machines.
I am suggesting a boycott of these two stores. Since I know for certain they accepted apple pay and then and now refusing. It is a simple and easy boycott see link http://youtu.be/9ZHusVNa1_A
Just say NO! Let’s all go to RiteAide and CVS with a basket of items to check out. Get your Apple Pay or Google Wallet ready. Once you are declined to pay with one of these methods, happily leave the basket at the counter and decline shopping there. Repeat in as many stores as you can. This will send them a message.
Here is a petition http://wh.gov/icbF5
This shouldn’t event be a worry to anyone, pretty soon the US will get chip and pin and NFC Cards like we have in Europe. What you’ll then see is visa, MasterCard and Amex change payment acceptance rules to force retailers into using NFC. If they disable it they won’t be able to take care payments. Let’s see how long that lasts.
As has been said before apple pay tech is nothing new apart from the fact apples implementation now has the banks behind it.
*Card
Very nice, informative and not at all biased article.
I didn’t realize Lowes was part of that list… Anyways they are just in the shadow of Home Depot in our town. Apple pay works great at Home Depot!!! I think I will keep my business there.
That is nice to hear. After the breach I thought I’d try a chip card there and was disappointed to find that HD has the readers installed but they are not active.
Hello!! Apple Pay was conceived as a way to sell more iPhones 6.
CurrentC allows any customer to purchase items with any smartphone including tablets and yes older Apple phones too.
Guess who is gonna gain more traction with the stores that prefer an universal, uniform solution?!
I think Apple is suffering from grandeur delirium.
Wow! You are a delusional fool! This isn’t about them cutting off ApplePay! This is about them cutting off NFC. PERIOD. This also cuts off Google Wallet. Android/Samsung customers are going to be pissed about this too! They are LITERALLY making the choice to prefer a LESS secure payment and DISABLE a more secure one! Next time you think about posting on this page… Reread your post and ask yourself “Does this post make me sound like I have NO IDEA what I’m talking about?”. If you do this, we will inevitably see less posts from you.
If you believe in one iota of what you just spewed, you are more delusional than should be safely allowed in public!
You seem to forget that these MCX merchants have also cut off Google Wallet and any/all contactless credit and debit cards as well!
Stop hating Apple for a minute (which I know will be next to impossible) and use your brain for a change (if it still has enough brain cells remaining)!
Didnt Apple stop carrying Bose speakers and Fitbit wearables in their store last week because of disputes?.
Why CVS shouldn’t have the right to support the payment system they want?
Is not like Apple Pay is a free service, Apple is taken a few $ out of each transaction.
Why these Merchants want to support a highly proprietary system that only works with iPhone6?
Will Samsung, Motorola, Blackberry and Microsoft follow suit with their own proprietary payment system?
Me thinks Apple Pay is DOA.
They should be supporting NFC… A standard that is already being used world-wide! This is about them trying to squeeze more money out of us by using a LESS SECURE payment system. If they want to enable CurrentC (and even offer coupons for using it), that is one thing… But to disable the system that protects our financial data (and keeps them from tracking our shopping habits)… That is preposterous! I will simply carry my credit card around and use it before allowing these corrupt merchants to have direct access to my checking account.
You don’t get it at all, do you??
You really are one of the biggest idiots here right now, GTFO!
There is no thinking in “Me thinks ”
Apple Pay is not a “highly proprietary” system but a great integration of several industry standards. One is NFC, another is the tokenization standard defined by EMVco (Visa, Mastercard, etc).
In most cases, if merchants accept PayPass/paywave then Apple Pay “just works”. Absolutely nothing to do. In fact, that’s exactly what happened at CVS and Rite-Aid until they disabled NFC. Think about that for a minute – in order to prevent Apple Pay from working, these stores disabled PayPass/paywave contactless transactions ! And Google Wallet.
And I do expect Samsung to build an Apple Pay-like system. I suspect that it won’t be as good as Apple’s, mainly because their existing fingerprint reader is awful (every reviewer has said so). Maybe it’ll get better. We’ll wait and see.
If there was a “Repopulate Sahara” drive and unlimited quantities of US citizens relocated to N. Africa, I think that’d really sock it to them. Like, “Stuff your stupid NFC favouritisms up your back-pipe, you retentively anal so-called “nerds”.
Prediction: All retailers will dump this POS within 6 months of rollout.
http://www.change.org/p/walmart-kmart-best-buy-stop-blocking-contactless-payment-methods-that-compete-with-currentc-such-as-apple-pay-and-google-wallet?recruiter=141196460&utm_campaign=twitter_link_action_box&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=share_petition%20via%20@UKChange
lost my business. Putting an antiquated system in place and not allowing a more modern security based system is troubling. And I’m a big CVS customer. Sorry CVS, Hello Walgreens
Won’t catch me using that crap. Lets stop technological advancement in this country so we can save money and track everything everyone does
one message to best buy…. DIVX the competition at the time for DVD …. which they supported … and died a horrible death
Apple can block them from the app store. They have a rule that no app can duplicate features that one of their native app already does. ISince CurrentC is a payment app and Apple has one they can block it. CVS and Riteaid already made the first move to undermine Apple Pay so if I was Apple I would turn the tables on them and ban it from the app store.
I like some of these retailers, but I now know to try to patronize their competitors instead. While I can appreciate wanting to cut-out the middle-man, and I do wish Google and Apple would provide access to NFC for others to build competitive systems, I find this system lacking in comparison.