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Comment by Alphasite_ | Hacker News Reader

Honestly it's he same in most places but it's still convenient not to have to worry about your wallet.

It really isn't the same.

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...

Australia had EFTPOS which was a way of using your debit card to buy stuff, way before the VISA network really took off.

I don't live in the US, I mean in most developed economies contactless is fairly common place.

Well, take Germany. Every store supports contactless, but MasterCard refuses to offer EC Cards with contactless, and wants to move customers to credit cards (which earn them far more profit – over 20 times the transaction fee).

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.

I still have to worry about my wallet because I need my driver license, I need an amount of cash, and I need my corporate swipe card. I would also need my physical credit cards for accessing ATMs and the small minority of merchants that don't have a contactless terminal. (A few places still only have chip+pin; one of my favourite coffee shops is cash only business.)

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.

As someone coming from Canada to Australia, and who held the same viewpoint; you just need to experience Apply Pay. Ozland seriously sucks now when compared to Canada for me regarding NFC payments. Idiots are trying to create a cartel here.

I've used and experienced Apple Pay. It's certainly convenient. Don't see how it's more convenient than tapping my credit card, an object I would still be carrying even if I had Apple Pay.

I'm genuinely curious; what is The Apple Pay Experience?

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.

For me, Apple Pay has two advantages over a contactless card:

- 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.

If explicit user interaction is a big deal, why don't banks make contactless cards with a thumb button you have to hold when swiping? Just a physical breaker in the NFC antenna circuit, it would be dead simple, as slim as you want, not need any power, and cheap.

1) No need to carry wallet when I was out in the field. 2) Stores do not get my card number and name. I always hated when something like even a restaurant would get my name. 3) If the card is reported lost and bank issues a new one, Apple Pay automatically updates before the card reaches me by mail. 4) It is additional security, as it asks for thumb verification before the payment.

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.

Really? I had a discussion with an American about this a while ago and they seemed stunned at how easy and efficient tap'n'go sounded compared to what they had available. I mean, we're fairly behind in most things here, but if you tried to pay for groceries with a cheque, in 99.9% of places you would be (rightly) laughed out of the store.

From what I understand (which could well be wrong), it's not uncommon for Americans to get literal pay cheques either.

Here we've had direct bank transfers for my entire adult life (15+ years).

I'm 37 in Australia and I've literally never had a chequebook in my life. I think one time I used a bank cheque for a real estate transaction but that was a decade ago.

In the States its not uncommon to just have your card swiped in grocery stores and not even have to sign. Effectively they've just made the old insecure magstripe & sig system more convenient (and insecure).

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