I'm sure Apple Pay is great, but with an entire continent already familiar with tapping their credit card, tapping a phone doesn't seem like much of an improvement.
Contactless payments as implemented in Australia is (IMHO) a disaster. Here are the problems:
- No opt out. You couldn't get an ATM card without it. This led to various guides on drilling a hole in the RF antenna to disable it. Last I heard the ACCC was intervening to force the big banks to give consumers an opt out. Not sure if this has happened yet.
- Report your card stolen and the thief can still keep using PayPass. Why is this even possible in the modern age of the Internet?
- The burden of proof on unauthorized transactions is on the consumer. I seem to recall reading something from the T&Cs that claimed you could be charged a fee for a "false" (ie denied) claim and you could only claim unauthorized transactions once or twice a year.
- In the case of disputed transactions the merchant is on the hook for it leading some to not accept it.
Basically contactless payments in Australia are an effort by the big banks to not be responsible for fraud. There's no real benefit to consumers.
That's the bank's problem, not yours.
> The burden of proof on unauthorized transactions is on the consumer.
Same as with chip + pin.
The burden of proof for unauthorised transactions is _never_ on the consumer.
> In the case of disputed transactions the merchant is on the hook
It is always the merchant who's on the hook for disputed transactions. The banks/issuer is _never_ on the hook.
Contactless payment is literally just a more convenient version of magnetic/chip payment, with everything else being the same.
It's true that the merchant has to prove that the consumer made the purchase. However, the burden is still on the consumer, since they still have to service the transaction until the dispute process is resolved.
There are also behind-the-scenes protections against identity theft. E.g. if a merchant has a data breach, your Apple Pay card number can't be used to buy things online.
But practically, for day to day expenses, it's not required.
>>> you get a transaction confirmation on your own device
As opposed to getting a confirmation on the terminal...
>>> and if you have an Apple Watch you don't even have to pull anything out of your pocket
I don't know if you're talking from experience, but those terminals are usually facing up and/or towards you. It's uncomfortable to bend your wrist like that.
How is this PIN/touch ID protected, then?
It's not identity theft they are protecting, but bank fraud. If a merchant has a data breach and my credit card details are used to buy things online without my authorization, that isn't identity theft, but bank fraud to the bank. Since all I have to do is say that transaction isn't mine and poof it's gone.
In Australia, if you dispute a credit card transaction, it still counts against your limit and your required repayments until the dispute is resolved. This can take months and be more than inconvenient.
If I complain about a charge (which I will only do if it's truly fraudulent, or not possible to have been initiated by me) the amount is credited immediately while the bank is taking it up with the merchant.
That's exactly the way it should be and if this is not the case you should probably be pushing for stronger consumer protection laws.
Contactless cards work the same way. They don't send your card number, they send a token.
He literally just said he does leave his home without his phone while running.
[edit] I stand corrected. Looks like the watch had a Secure Element also to store the pay info. It automatically locks if you take it off.
I understand that I might be a special case, but given the option, I would ALWAYS leave my phone at home. I hate that freaking thing.
Canada also has large penetration of contactless payments, as does UK and Europe. Australia is not unique in this sense. Every major Canadian bank has rolled out Apple Pay. Australia lacks in this area massively with every bank rolling out a shitty app.
None of the banks need to sign up at all. No existing customers need to use Apple Pay. All this is entirely opt in. So why any fuss at all? Hmmm...
That has been the banks' position. Then Apple started asking politicians to force the banks to do business with Apple (on Apple's terms, of course). This is a counter-punch: we'll open up, but only if you do.
A May 2015 survey by RF Intelligence Group, called ‘Global Payments Evaluation Study’, based on 32,000 respondents in 16 countries found that 66 per cent of Australians are aware that they own a contactless payment card and 53 per cent have made a contactless transaction. By contrast, just 14 per cent of Americans own a contactless card and only 9 per cent have used one for a payment.
http://www.bpaybanter.com.au/news-views/why-do-australians-l...
Oh, and we don’t get Android Pay either.
As a result, the experience is horrible. And for every single bit US corporations are to blame.
Here we've had direct bank transfers for my entire adult life (15+ years).
My wallet is very slim; it would be more hassle having to think about whether I needed it or not, than to just have it on me at all times.
What sucks so bad about our current setup?
What is so hugely different about tapping your phone instead of a card that it could possibly convince me to go through 3-4 extra steps? I really don't get it.
- it's only active after explicit user interaction. There is no way for somebody with an rogue device to steal money from me.
- conversely, there's no limit after which a transaction requires pin entry. Here in Switzerland, the limit for contactless cards is CHF 50 after which you have to still type in your pin. With Apple Pay, there is no limit.
Both of these make Apple Pay very valuable to me.
There's one more thing: I also have a contactless debit card (which I would love to be available on Apple Pay, but that's probably never going to happen) and the moment a reader detects more than one card, it refuses contacless operation.
By having the credit card on the watch, they are separated far enough from each other, so I can always pay contactless. This is a problem that would be fixable with better UX on the readers.
There are no 3-4 extra steps involved at all. It is just taking phone out, as you normally do with card, and just tapping the thumb on home button.