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Hi,

In the last month, have you used Apple Pay, Android Pay, Samsung Pay for a purchase?  I

I'm curious about the adoption of these mobile payment services.  I've tried using Samsung pay twice, the first time it didn't work, the second it took three tries so I said "screw it" and just use my credit card because I just know it will work each time I use it.

Droid pay works great for me.

I use Apple Pay wherever it's available. Seems to work fine, but obviously not available everywhere. (It's faster than waiting for the chip card to read and process)

You'd probably have more success with Android Pay (though maybe Samsung Pay is a rebrand of that?), though I'm not sure I've seen many signs for it where I've been able to use Apple Pay.

The only place that Apple Pay hasn't worked for me where it is accepted is Subway where for some reason when I try to use my linked Discover card with it, it fails. The card itself works.

I use it pretty much any place I plan on paying by credit card that accepts it now. I don't have my debit card linked to it since I only ever use that at the grocery store.

I am actually looking for a good Pay App for my Droid phone.

Apple definitely has a leg up over Android on this one, as Apple Pay is pretty much your only option on an apple device.

Meanwhile, Android has about 200 different apps, half of which only work for specific banks, so if I have a Debit Card for one bank, and a Credit card from another, I seem to be forced to use 2 separate apps if i want to use them on my phone.

I haven't actually tried any phone-pay (I only have two cards, which work just about everywhere), but can't you connect any arbitrary card to Google Wallet, and then link that to Android Pay?

--Dave

I legit dont see a purpose in pay apps. Im all about shaving time off mundane horseshit but this is a bridge too far.

At least with Apple Pay, it is actually better from a security standpoint since every transaction has a unique token so if one merchant gets compromised the account number gained is useless.

I've got Samsung Pay or Android Pay set up (can't remember which) and used it once, in case I am ever caught with just a phone. It worked fine. But if you carry a wallet or at least one card, the phone is a step less useful as you have to unlock it before you can use it (even if that's just a fingerprint).

If I used a small phone, as some people prefer to do, I would probably consider using this to further downsize what I carry. But I like having a large phone and it's not as convenient to wield that instead of a card.

I'm also in this camp. Between the times I've seen people holding up lines trying to use it and the potential security problems with storing the info on a device that is often publicly accessible, I just would rather use the old method. It's like that for almost everything for me. I print my boarding passes at the airport so I'm ready to hand it and not fumbling with my phone that *just* went to sleep as I show it to the gate agent.

Fwiw, once we got out from under our cc debt, we switched to using cash for just about everything except Amazon/online purchases.

The single advantage I see to pay apps is the, "unique code per transaction," feature. However, even after having someone skim my CC# in Florida back in April I still think it's a bigger pain in the ass than it's worth.

I use android pay sometimes. Saves me from having to dig out my card and insert it into the machine and wait a few moments then punch in my pin. Not a main go-to activity, but I'll do it if I have the option and have my phone out already.

+1

I'm far more likely to lose my phone than my wallet since it's out of my pocket more often, so the added security seems to be a wash at best.

I came to the same conclusion the last time I tried to use Samsung pay. I had a couple of transactions that didn't go smoothly at the store, decided that it was "not ready for primetime" and never used it again.

However, Samsung started some new rewards program with free stuff, so I started the thread to see where the country is at. 

The couple of times I've used Droid pay, it's worked awesome. Way faster than using a card, especially if you have to use the fucking chip reader. (Why is that so goddamned slow?) Dunno where Samsung and Apple are on that stuff though.

My working theory is it's a combination of small decisions.
1) Stores cheap-out on Wi-Fi and Bandwidth in general. "We sell physical products, no need for a fat pipe."

2) Manufacturers don't stick high-end processors in card readers or registers. Slow's ok, it's not doing heavy number crunching.

3) Stores don't reboot sales kiosks, ever. That requires technical expertise your average line jockey doesn't have AND the damn things take forever to reboot (see #2).

4) The chip process takes more time at Visa than the old "just make sure there's cash." It does 2-3 round-trip communications IIRC.

The reason the chip process is so slow is that until the card is inserted into the reader and you have gotten to the actual payment processing step, the cryptographic handshake/tokenization between the merchant and the payment processor doesn't start. That process takes 5-10 seconds.

No matter where in the world you go, that process takes about the same amount of time. The issue in the US is that because they stupidly decided to go chip+sig instead of chip+PIN the time people use to enter the PIN that usually masks at least some of the time of the communication in other countries is not there.

In Australia our chip and pin cards can be tapped on the reader rather than inserted. They don't require a pin to be entered for transactions under A$100 (it skips the pin entry and just goes ahead and processes the transaction when you tap).

This saves a lot of time when just picking up some groceries, and makes me less likely to use another method. Of course, you really don't want to lose your card, but it's only small transactions so nobody really worries too much.

Those are RFID chips though, yes? The US EMV chips are near-field and require being within a MM or so to be read.

Outside the US most rich country debit/credit cards have this - the tech isn't materially different to phone pay systems. And it is the main reason you don't see much use of Apple/google pay in europe.

I suspect the reason for contactless card payments not taking off quickly in the US is  that retail banking is more fragmented and varies more by state - so retail banking innovation tends to lag other  countries.

My square set up has the ability to do apple pay, I've had all of 2 customers ever try to use it. Neither went well.  "It never works for me in starbucks either" was one's comment, the other just took forever to process. Chip+sig goes pretty fast even where it's only 2G, 4G/LTE is almost instant..

As a total aside, Rattran, what do you do in places there's zero signal? Ohio's Ren fair grounds has such an unreliable signal I've missed texts in previous years; I can't imagine trying to run a booth. Most of the folks I've bought stuff from do cash or carbon copy receipts.

There's only 2 shows I deal with with no signal for any carrier. I have AT&T, we have verizon and sprint prepaid phones. One of the 3 pretty much works everywhere. Except Atlanta, and upstate NY, where we get dsl and set up wifi. Better to pay ~$400 for 2 months of dsl than not take credit.

The Dayton/Harveysburg fair in Ohio has the ability for phone lines, I had one when I did the show 20+ years ago for my old card swipe, so should have some sort of available dsl/wifi. Dunno about the Great Lakes fair there.

The thing that got me to install Apple Pay was the fact that I don't like carrying my wallet to the gym, but I like being able to stop at the grocery store on the way home.  I used to handle this by carrying a small wad of cash in my pocket along with my phone, which is suboptimal because I have to remember to refresh the cash wad and I have to deal with coin change after the purchase.  (For some reason I feel weird about carrying just a card in my pocket, maybe because it's easy to lose something so light, and I'd rather lose a $20 than have to deal with losing a card.)  When I noticed that the store had added Apple Pay support, I decided to give that a whirl so I could just pay with the phone I have on me anyway.

Now I use it almost everywhere it's available.  The added security layer is nice, but really what I love about it is the physical efficiency.  Pulling the wallet out of my pocket and pulling the card out of the wallet and using the card and putting the card back and putting the wallet back requires two hands and at least ten seconds; pulling the phone out of my pocket and tapping the gizmo while thumbing the phone and putting the phone back takes one hand and about five seconds.  If I'm trying to gather up groceries, or get out of a cab, or anything else that I'm often trying to do immediately after a purchase, not having to fumble with my wallet is delightful.

Rattran's experience with Square matches mine at the restaurants I've tried to use it at.  I still try to use it every time (even though it only works about half the time) because the time savings when it does work makes up for the wasted time when it doesn't, and because I figure if I keep using it Square's customers will put more pressure on them to improve it.

I'm eagerly waiting for the Clipper card (the bus pass thing we use in they Bay Area) to come out with an iOS app that works similarly so I could "tag on" to a bus without having to pull my wallet out of my pocket.

(edit) Oh, the other nice thing about Apple Pay: being able to make purchases on my phone without having to enter credit card info for each app.

I use Apple pay almost daily. (Surprise, surprise.)

Android Pay got me into a toilet in a mall in Koblenz.

We use Chip & Pin almost exclusively up here. Now with Tap though, I haven't even seen the point in a phone app. If its under the $50 limit I put on mine, I just have to wait for the handshake to complete on the machine and tap it with the card for 1 second. Works great so long as you wait for the machine to be ready - typically 5 seconds maybe?

Apple Pay isn't a phone app really though. It pops up on the lock screen when near the reader with your default card and if you want to use that one you just use the fingerprint reader and it is done.