If the person who is ringing me up has an iPhone, and says "just tap this", there is a part of me that is wondering if this is the company's iPhone, or their personal device? Of course, this is easily resolved with the right surround which would remove this question, but I think it's somewhat valid.
Isn't this how it works in Apple stores (I'm not an apple person). Don't they walk around with iPhones in this big chunky yellow cases, and then you just pay for stuff through that? Maybe I'm wrong...
I don't see why you care anyway, they would be stealing from the store, not from you. You would already have whatever item you are buying.
Is the iPhone gonna print a receipt?
The merchant rings you up for $5, shows you the phone in their hand indicating the cost, and the Square Reader lights up to show it's ready for payment. You pay via inserting your credit card, which processes in a few seconds, and then the payment is complete. The merchant is no longer showing you the phone, and presumably hits "No Receipt".
However, the merchant actually has a second out of sight device that is set to charge $500 and is actually paired with the Square Reader. Because you've paid with a physical card, there's a good chance you won't notice the charge till you go to pay your credit card or check your bank account.
This would probably be a short-lived scam, as the merchant's malicious Square account would have to be linked to a bank (I think this is the only option), which would identify them. I'm pretty sure Square requires ID verification of some sort as well. So reporting this malicious transaction to your bank/credit card would flag them.
Additionally, if you're paying via a mobile wallet, you'll likely get an immediate notification saying "You paid $500 to Malicious Ice Cream Vendor".
Now let's think about Apple's new plan. It could be that Apple layer's it's own mandatory interface that shows "Pay $5 to Ice Cream Vendor" regardless of the app being used. Maybe this is actually the employee's phone instead of the company's device, but that's the same as the employee stealing cash out of the register, so not really your issue.
Or Apple could not layer it's own UI, and just open up the radio as an API. Apple could require that apps that use this API to have some additional verification to prevent someone from making an app that displays "Charge $5" when it's really charging $500.
All that being said, I only see smaller merchants using iPhones + Square Readers. Maybe some boutique stores, food trucks, etc. Once a store gets large enough, they usually want dedicated hardware, even if it's a Square Stand.
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Here's Square's hardware page if you want visuals: https://squareup.com/au/en/hardware
Useful for double checking that something hasn’t gone wrong and I haven’t been charged the wrong amount! I’d also see if a fraudulent transaction went through.
The first time I used one of those strange little white terminals it seemed a bit dodgy ... but you pretty quickly come to trust that what's on the screen is what gets debited.
Also I doubt Apple would leave a nice app-accessible text field on the Tap To Pay dialog where I can insert my fake amount. Right ?!
I would like to go to a store where I trust the business, the employee, and the entire pipeline. I understand that is idealistic, but yes, this is how I feel. It's like saying "why do you care if the employee is underpaid, you're saving money", which describes the whole tipping culture in the US.
Why would you need a special surround? And why is that an issue for you the consumer?
And for those even on Square Apple's ipads are still the preferred choice as far as I can tell. So there isn't much of a benefit other than fees.
For anything larger than a small fast casual you quickly run into greater integration needs with things like KDS (of which a few do use tablets, Toast, Fresh, etc, and even then I think ipads are preferred. I know Square integrates with a few of those as well as NorthStar so, I don't think they may have much to fear other than at the low end mom and pop stores.
If I go to the farmers market on the weekend, they all accept cash or tap-to-pay with a Square tap-only reader, and that’s it.
It looks like they are going through similar weird things with instant bank transfers. In Australia all the major banks just have instant transfers built in. I use the bank app to transfer to friends and they get notified. In the US you Venmo or PayPal or whatever.
The first time I was able to use ApplePay (as an American) was on a trip to NZ. In fact, the clerk at the gas station was shocked to see someone pay with their phone, even though this had been possible with Android for some time, and even though contactless itself was old hat there.
As for the SIM thing, that just depends so much on the business model and regulatory environment. Pay as you go is relatively unpopular in the US, and the availability reflects that. But it's not like Italy, where I had to hand over my passport (!) to get a SIM, or Germany, where I had to document where I was "living". I've heard it's even worse in, say, Chile, where you virtually need to be a citizen or permanent resident to get a SIM.
BUT contact free payment via card and Apple Pay contact free payments are slightly different and I’ve been to POS terminals that had one but not other. But the point was that there exists cards that don’t have nfc capabilities, including the one made by the company at center of article.
They are very, very similar that this surprises me. Apple/Google pay implement the same standards as wireless cards and it should Just Work(TM) everywhere the cards can be accepted. Obviously real life and 'should' don't always marry up.
But it was one of the big drivers of acceptance of the tech in most places - the infrastructure is already there! You probably don't even need to update the firmware on your reader!
> including the one made by the company at center of article.
Sure, but my point is that I believe that's deliberate, because they want you to use the contactless payment capability of your phone. I don't doubt there are other cards out there without the capability, I just think the apple one isn't a great example.
The US may be an anomaly here, but it always has been. The UK had chip and pin roll out while the US still had mag stripe being the most common; we slowly added chip and signature (we still don't have chip and pin), and now we still aren't anywhere close to universal in tap to pay.
In the USA maybe. Elsewhere it's already huge.
I would be very surprised if Apple tried to enter the credit card processing industry. It isn't the sort of thing they're positioned to do well.
No.
It allows sole proprietors, freelancers and the like to not have to get a Square reader to take credit card transactions. That's super convenient, especially for getting a deposit from a client, for example.
It also requires a newish iPhone (iPhone XS or later device), so there will still be plenty of iPhones out there that won't support this.