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Banks and Credit Unions to Team Up Against Apple Pay Fees

127 points · 133 comments · Brajeshwar

  1. havaloc · · focus · HN ↗
    I get why the banks are not happy, but I can tell them that I am not going to use Chase Wallet, Bank of America Wallet, Citi Wallet...just pay the fee and be thankful for the reduced payment friction, which they invariably make money from. PS: Nobody is going to use Paze (yet another half baked wallet), other than to collect the free $10 to sign up for it.

    Somewhat related, even Walmart relented and now supports Apple Pay/Contactless. Every big merchant has now relented (Kroger, Home Depot, Walmart).

    1. kotaKat · · focus · HN ↗
      Walmart only relented because they finally broke through the final missing link of the contactless issue. They got customers conned into giving their phone numbers at checkout, just like it's the grocery store.

      Cards get linked to accounts automatically behind the scenes based on first6/last4 card number tracking, then everyone else self-selects to punch their phone number on the screen.

      Same reason Walmart Radio is such gruesome auditory cancer, it's part of the data collection and advertising vehicle.

      1. havaloc · · focus · HN ↗
        That could be part of the reason, but also I think insisting on chip all this time just really slows down a store that doesn't really spend on cashiering all that much. Tap to pay can shave off a few seconds on every transaction (ever been behind someone in the store who finally pulls out their wallet, finds the business end of their card, inserts it, waits 20 seconds...).

        Millions of transactions a day, over thousands of stores, it can make a huge difference in time saved.

        1. AnthonyMouse · · focus · HN ↗
          > Tap to pay can shave off a few seconds on every transaction

          I don't really get how this can be possible. A person can definitely get their card out of their wallet in less time than it takes the cashier to finish scanning their items.

          Obviously if the customer is confused then it can take arbitrarily long, but how is a phone less confusing than a card? People don't get to the register only to realize that their card's battery is run down or it's the first time they've used a phone for payments and then they want to stand there for 15 minutes in front of you trying to set it up.

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