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Comment by seanmcdirmid | Hacker News Reader

Mobile payments haven't taken off in the west because credit cards have worked well enough. In china, lots of small-scale businesses lack POS terminals while Chinese banks put the burden of proof in case of fraud on the card user, rather than the merchant as in the west. Using a credit card in china is an absolute PITA.

Since returning to the states from china, I've been happily surprised that I can just tap my credit card to pay at many terminals. This still pales in comparison to austrailia, where this tap to pay seems to be ubiquitous.

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Just wish everyone would hop onboard quicker. We still need a lot of consumer education.

For example, Apple Pay works great at Whole Foods. I use it every time. Other people in line painstakingly pay with credit cards, despite holding an iPhone in their other hand. The new chip cards take longer to process, even, 5 seconds or so.

Chips are unnaturally slow in the states, they are pretty fast in Europe.

So I have to have a apple phone worth several hundred dollars plus the extortionate mobile charges in the USA instead of a free credit card with tap and go I know which one I prefer

Well you could use Android if you can't afford an iPhone. There are many different options for mobile payments.

So only £150 fo a moto g then a bargain

I use Android Pay all the time at Whole Foods in the US and it works great. It's faster than a chip card, and it links directly to my existing card.

> Mobile payments haven't taken off in the west because credit cards have worked well enough

Yeah but no. Come in the UK and you'll see that mobile payments are seeing widespread acceptance. I can go weeks without having to pull my Debit or Credit Card.

Absolutely. This thread seems to be populated with people who think everywhere in "the west" = the USA.

I'm in Ireland and hate carrying change so I use my phone all the time to pay, I only end up going to the ATM ~ once every 2 weeks or so.

Some people working in shops aren't used to paying with phones yet but you just tell them it's the same as contactless card and it works out fine.

Everywhere to me is just china and the USA. I haven't been to the UK in years, but was happy about NFC usage when I tripped to austrailia.

Ever since I've been back to the states from china, I've used the ATM only around four times in the last year. My wallet also feels much more empty given the density of $20 bills over 100 RMB notes.

> Mobile payments haven't taken off in the west because credit cards have worked well enough

USA != the west. Paying by credit card is pretty uncommon in large parts of Europe. Most stores I frequent don't even accept credit cards. But debit cards with pin&chip and now wireless NFC pin&chip is very popular.

I hardly ever use cash, but the only reason I have a credit cards is for some US webshops.

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