“Long before Apple Pay, big brick-and-mortar retail chains were conspiring to sidestep the typical 2% to 3% fees they’re charged by credit card companies when consumers pay with credit. A company called MCX (Merchant Customer Exchange), spearheaded by Walmart, was started to build a mobile payment solution that would become an app called CurrentC that’s preparing to launch, but is already in the app stores,” Josh Constine reports for TechCrunch. “Rather than NFC, CurrentC uses QR codes displayed on a cashier’s screen and scanned by the consumer’s phone or vice versa to initiate and verify the transaction. The system is also designed to automatically apply discounts, use loyalty programs, and charge purchases to a variety of payment methods without passing sensitive financial data to the merchant.”
“Retailers including CVS and Rite-Aid were planned partners for CurrentC. Now those businesses have pulled unofficial support for Apple Pay through their existing NFC readers,” Constine reports. “This implies they’ve established exclusive deals with MCX to use CurrentC as their mobile payment option.”
“When you sign up for CurrentC, you’re supposed to add your bank account,” Constine reports. “When it’s time for a user to check out, they request to pay with CurrentC. The consumer then unlocks their phone, opens the CurrentC app, opens the code scanner, and scans the QR code shown on the cashier’s screen. In some case, the reverse may happen where the consumer’s CurrentC app displays a payment code and the cashier scans it. If a QR code can’t be generated, a manually entered numeric code may be offered.”
“CurrentC notes it may share info with your device maker, app store, or developer tool makers. Oddly, it will collect health data. Precise location information is used to verify you’re at the retailer where you’re making a transaction, and if you opt in it can be used for marketing or advertising. CurrentC notes that you can opt in to be able to capture and store photos in the app for a hypothetical visual shopping list or other features down the road,” Constine reports. “Users have to open their phone, open CurrentC, open the scanner, scan the code from the cashier, and wait for the transaction to be confirmed. That may present more friction than simply paying with a credit card, and it’s certainly harder than a quick Touch ID verification and tap of Apple Pay.”
Read more in the full article here.
“Consumers are responding by threatening to boycott stores which disable Apple Pay, with more than 2,000 comments across several Reddit threads on the topic. Android users are joining in, as disabling NFC also blocks alternative mobile payment services offered by higher-end Android handsets,” Ben Lovejoy reports for 9to5Mac. “As with CVS, Apple Pay initially worked in Rite Aid stores, indicating that the company has made a deliberate decision to switch off support.”
“MCX members like the CurrentC system as it links direct to debit accounts, bypassing card companies and the transaction fees they levy. It also allows them to issue coupons and track purchasing behaviour,” Lovejoy reports. “For consumers, however, CurrentC is ridiculously clunky. It relies on either exchanging QR codes – the payment terminal displaying one which is scanned by the phone, and the phone generating a second one that is scanned by the terminal – or manually entering 4-digit codes. It is also far less secure, without the protection Apple Pay offers with single-use codes and Touch ID.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Boycott CVS and Rite Aid and any other company that willfully turns off NFC in a effort to block the vastly more secure, much more private, and far easier-to-use Apple Pay service.
Related articles:
Bad business: CVS and Rite Aid antagonize their most well-heeled customers by blocking Apple Pay – October 27, 2014
CVS stores reportedly disabling NFC to shut down Apple Pay – October 25, 2014
iPhone users earn significantly more than those who settle for Android phones – October 8, 2014
Yet more proof that Android is for poor people – June 27, 2014
More proof that Android is for poor people – May 13, 2014
Apple’s iOS dominates in richer countries, Android in poorer regions – March 25, 2014
Twitter heat map shows iPhone use by the affluent, Android by the poor – June 20, 2013
iPhone users smarter, richer than Android phone users – August 16, 2011
Yankee Group: Apple iPhone owners shop more, buy more, remain more loyal vs. other device users – July 20, 2010
Fine by me. CVS is notorious for opening up right next to every Walgreens in existence. I already knew they were awful.
i think cvs built a store next to just about every walgreens in the city where i live. it is kind of like microsoft putting up a store near an apple store but way more obvious.
Starbucks followed this same tactic, placing a store within walking distance of any chain or independent coffee house.
And Microsoft is opening stores (I think they’re stores, maybe they’re just warehouses, I’ve never seen anyone besides employees and kids playing xbox in one) next to Apple stores. At least in CVS’s case it makes financial sense…
I finally got a chance to try Apple Pay in a Duane Reade this morning… flawless. Was so fast I had to ask the cashier if it was really done. Can’t wait for it to become ubiquitous.
The last store I visited was full of homeless people watching free porn. The touchscreens were a disgusting mess.
I was just thinking the same thing. I get family prescriptions done at CVS, but time to switch!
Idiots.
Be sure to let them know why you’re switching.
I dumped CVS a long time ago. I go to a nice single owner country drug store. Everybody knows my name, and the service is fantastic. Something CVS never had. Boycott them!
Stopped shopping at those companies supporting this archaic system years ago. Boycott is in full effect. GO PAY!!!
This post makes no sense. What archaic system?
What archaic system?…
Payment…
I suggest Apple Pay and Not Apple Pay stickers, and reward vendors that support Apple Pay (listed or not, incidental or not) and tag those that do not support Apple Pay.
Or another trick, just stick supports Apple Pay on everyone’s door, and then watch the frustration at the check out when people try and it doesn’t work.
Note: Made up HTML markup in place of /s, does not work.
>When it’s time for a user to check out, they request to pay with CurrentC. The consumer then unlocks their phone, opens the CurrentC app, opens the code scanner, and scans the QR code shown on the cashier’s screen.
What a hassle. Nobody is going to use this.
I’m enough of a gadget geek that I’d give scanning QR codes a try — if I could use my credit card. Linking my checking account is just stupid. No way. No f***in’ way.
But even if I could use my credit card, I think scanning QR codes would seem like a major PITA after just a few purchases and I’d just go back to swiping my card.
BTW, It’s great to have an enemy again, isn’t it? I look forward to MCX suffering the same fate as Creative, BuyMusic.com, and soon, Samsung: ground to paste under Apple’s heels.
——RM
We don’t have to boycott, Apple will just pull their apps from the AppStore.
This will be the best thing to happen. If google does the same their payment system will be completely useless.
What goes around comes around 🙂
Apple will lot be childish. It is up to us consumers to take action and show CVS and RiteAid, etc.. that we know what is good for us. We want more privacy, more security.
No.
If the CurrentC app is already available, pulling it exposes them to accusations of anti-competive behaviour, yet again.
Apple has nothing to fear, and in fact benefits from people trying to use this, as they see just what a ridiculously stupid PITA it is to use compared to ApplePay.
So why is what these companies are doing not anti competitive then? At some stage I would say that Apple should certainly hang this over their heads if it becomes especially obstructive in practice. That is unlikely mind as it is a dead end alternative NFC is going to be the standard elsewhere in the World where using it on phones to enter clubs, transit and hotel rooms will become the norm. Not sure how QR codes are going to compete with that flexibility.
I’m not saying what these companies are doing *isn’t* anti-competive. Just that Apple shouldn’t have to waste their time (and that of Apple defenders like us) dealing with the obvious negative media spin that would result from pulling the app, and with it suggestions that it “can’t compete” on a level playing field.
In this situation Apple and its customers are the victims, and CurrentC is getting a lot of negative attention because it’s a very obviously inferior system. Pull the app, and the resulting unjustified negative media furor against Apple means more people discover it and try it. Even if those are mostly on the Android version, it would still help boost CurrentC’s numbers and give it legitimacy. And frankly, I think that might be CurrentC’s target market: those on low-end Androids, they suffer with slow systems already, an extra inconvenience with the QR code might mean little to them.
The big rule in advertising applies: if you’re #1 (or soon to be), then promote your own product, but don’t acknowledge or increase awareness of #2 and below.
Apple has every right to decide what does and does not make it into their store. It’s the same thing as CVS deciding not to sell cigarettes. Cigarettes are harmful and so is this crappy app. The reason why this app is harmful is the participator might have their bank account drained if hacked. There is no fraud protection with this CurrentC system. User beware. The app is a menace to society and must be scourged from the face of the planet. Poof… All gone.
This is what I think might happen: Walmart or Best Buy will give a free Android or Windows phone to consumers that sign into the CurrentC system. They will give away millions of phones to those that don’t know about the pitfalls of CurrentC. Europe will follow and ban NFC. Within a year or so there will be a major hack and millions of people will lose their life savings. It will be a worldwide calamity and cause a complete financial meltdown. Put that in your AI machine.
Save the “Apple has every right….” line for when it counts. It’s tired and overused, and no one disputes this.
Read my follow-up comment to spyintheuk, I’m saying it’s not only unnecessary, it will only make your implausible scenario slightly more likely to happen, since banning the CurrentC app on iOS will do nothing, NOTHING, to prevent its backers from giving free phones like you suggest they will, plus they’ll get a free boost from the “Banned by Apple!!!” spin that would result.
At this point in time, CurrentC is an obscure app. The blowback would be minimal, especially if removed from the store in a couple of weeks. The situation would be much different if Apple banned an established app like Google maps.
Another consideration is what will happen when millions of free phone people begin using the service? If the app was not available on iPhones it could hinder Apple sales. I’m sure the planners at Apple are calculating the impact and we will know soon enough. My educated guess is that the millions that do get a free CurrentC phone will be the type that purchase cheap Android phones. These people don’t care about privacy/security or they are completely clueless. So, there won’t be lost iPhone sales with this group because they will always get the junk. My concern is if these retailers eventually ban traditional credit/debit cards. When this happens iPhone users will demand the CurrentC app and this will lead to the slippery slope of financial calamity.
Not going to either place until they give us customers the option to use Apple Pay. They can have there own service to but they also need to give the customer the choice to use Apple Pay or I won’t shop there anymore.
What I’m really tired of, is each week hearing another store I recently shopped at had a security breach and all of their stored customer data is in the open. Pay solves those worries for me, but beyond CVS & Rite Aid turning off Pay, there are just too many stores that do not have NFC yet. So … for stores I can use Pay in, I do. For stores I can’t – I’m going old school and using cash.
I have reported all of my credit cards as lost, and had them replaced. Any of my credit card numbers that are stored, or stolen, are now useless. The new cards are entered into Pay, then filed away in my safe. I’m done with potential security breaches and data mining, so it’s either Pay or cash from now on.
So the likes of CurrentC will be lost on me – if they don’t take Pay, they get cash, and they can’t get data via either of those methods of payment!
You, my friend, are a genius!
If these retailers want more data on what I am buying, then find a way to work with Apple to also transfer my rewards card info to the terminal or via an App while I am making my purchase. For some stores I would be glad to do this, others, I want privacy.
So a big FU to CVS.
Someone needs to make a beautiful webpage with company icons on who to boycott and spread it across the web!
“If a QR code can’t be generated, a manually entered numeric code may be offered.”
That’s right- you know just like in a supermarket like they used to do in the 70s or like how they do now when the scanner doesn’t work properly.
After having read the article on techcrunch.com this morning about CurrentC – I’m now fearful that the other companies that are in the CurrentC consortium, but are currently allowing Pay payments, may soon follow CVS & Rite Aids lead on turning off Pay via their NFC terminals. (Especially Meijer as that’s where I do the most shopping.)
I used the contact systems on both companies’ websites to register my unhappiness with their decisions. I encourage others to do the same.
Let’s see…CurrentC requires direct access to your bank account, your driver’s license and social security numbers to function. It shares data on your prescriptions and other purchases (candy, cigarettes, beer, etc.) with health insurance companies. And all of this data is stored in the cloud, not on your iPhone. Oh, and as we know, retailers have sterling record of data security protection (not).
That leaves me SO confident! WHAT COULD GO WRONG?
#fail
There is a payments war shaping up with Walmart on one side and Apple/Google on the other. I expect it to generate sustained publicity and ultimately affect retail dollars and where they’re spent. I will never set foot in a Walmart or CVS or any of their other cowardly vassals ever again.
CurrentC demands driver’s license AND social security number in addition to your bank account? Whoa! Where is that tidbit documented?
Right here: https://twitter.com/hasanahmad80/status/526551322523623424
No problem with the boycott for me. I dislike the layout and pricing at CVS and Rite Aid. Walgreens is well-designed, and stocked with what I need, along with those fun “As Seen On TV” impulse items that I rarely buy, but make me laugh.
Make sure you send feedback to CVS as well as boycott. Here’s the link to the page to let them know how you feel:
http://www.cvs.com/help/email-customer-relations.jsp?callType=store&topicid=200018
Thanks for the link. I just sent CVS the following –
I am disheartened to hear that CVS will not accept Apple Pay at their NFC Terminals in store. Fortunately for me, there are other pharmacies in the Monroe MI area (48162) that do accept Apple Pay (Walgreens) and they will receive all of my business until you once again accept Apple Pay.
My desire to use Apple Pay is not based solely on loyalty to Apple. Week after week there are stories in the news of another retailer experiencing a security breach, and countless millions of customer’s credit card numbers are stolen and now in the open. Apple Pay ends those worries for me as a consumer – by keeping my private information precisely that – PRIVATE and unreachable.
Security as a consumer is of high importance to me. Your decision to stop allowing Apple Pay payments to be processed at your stores, illustrates to me that you as a company are not as serious about security, as I am. I will therefore, not be shopping at CVS any longer.
Regards and good luck!
Done!
Thanks for the link.
“When it’s time for a user to check out, they request to pay with CurrentC. The consumer then unlocks their phone, opens the CurrentC app, opens the code scanner, and scans the QR code shown on the cashier’s screen”.
They missed “Take off you shirt, do a merry go around dance and stand on your head” Routine………..very secure and fun…..whats not to love about CurrentC*#T$……lol
The part of that I don’t like is – “unlocks their phone, opens the CurrentC app” – sound like the perfect time for someone to hit me over the head with a sock full of nickels and steal my now unlocked phone opened to the app that allows them to buy what ever they want! Genius security there!
Yawn.
1. CVS, Rite Aid, Wal-Mart, Best Buy etc. signed exclusive contracts with another mobile payments system. If they break those contracts THEY GET SUED. If the company that they signed the contracts with go out of business, WE ARE TALKING ABOUT BILLIONS.
2. Google went through this years ago when trying to launch Google Wallet. Other mobile payments companies have tried the same and been blocked the same way. But Apple was supposed to succeed because they were so much different and better and “user experienced” focused, right?
None of your past arguments against Microsoft, Google, Samsung or whatever is going to work. You’re going to organize a boycott of a feature that virtually no one has heard of, let alone uses? Yeah. Right. Let me know how that goes. You do realize that only the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus and the new iPads even support Apple Pay? The tens of millions of people with the iPhone 5 and iPhone 4 won’t be able to join in because their phones don’t have the hardware.
See, this is where stuff like MARKET SHARE MATTERS. You can talk about all of your HIGHER MARGINS and HIGHER PROFITS when you are pushing tablets, phones and laptops. But when you are talking about mass retail, the billions that Apple is raking in selling devices that cost $150 to manufacture for $850 doesn’t matter. What matters is that only 5% of the population has those devices, and retailers will be able to ignore that 5% to focus on the other 95%, especially if the result is getting to control their own payment system instead of being at the mercy of Apple.
They already moved to create this system because they were sick of being at the mercy of banks and credit card companies. What makes you think that retailers like Apple controlling their payments any better? News flash: they don’t love Apple as much as you do. Some of them even compete with Apple. Best Buy, for instance? They compete with those Apple stores. Go open up an Apple store next to a Best Buy and wait 6-18 months. Which one is putting up a going out of business sign? Exactly.
Companies are going to do what is good for themselves, not what is good for Apple. If Apple Pay isn’t good for the retailers, or if another option is better for the retailers, companies are going to choose their own interests.
>See, this is where stuff like MARKET SHARE MATTERS…What matters is that only 5% of the population has those devices, and retailers will be able to ignore that 5% to focus on the other 95%
Apple’s iPhone U.S. marketshare is 41.4%, not 5%, you ignorant fool.
The iPhone market share is over 40%, and iPhone users’ spending is a significantly higher percentage than that. No intelligent retailer is going to want to turn this purchasing group off. But CVS and Walmart have.
I have transferred all of my prescriptions from CVS.
your math leaves much to be desired. Joop’s estimate of 5% of the population is actually too high. only iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+ owners can use Apple Pay — and all of those people still carry their credit cards or cash because Apple Pay isn’t ubiquitous and won’t be for several years, if ever. Good luck with the boycott, you might as well march on Wall Street next to demand credit card companies charge lower fees.
Oh, Mike, Mike, Mike. I know you see yourself as the “contrarian voice of MDN” (more like cowardly voice, since you won’t register), but you’re trying way too hard here.
Yeah, only iPhone 6 and up can use Apple Pay. Within 3 years, that will be almost all the iPhones out there. The retailers know that. That’s Apple Pay inspired them to turn off NFC, even though Google Wallet was already available for years. They know the longer Apple Pay is available, the more traction it will get.
——RM
atlman: owned!
It amazes me that people still think global share means anything when it comes to the US retail market.
And even 5% as a global share is a blatant lie, since it’s less than half the 11-12% that’s commonly reported.
short sighted comment in my view. In 2 years time how many iphone owners would NOT be able to use Apple Pay factoring in also Apple Watch?
Best Buy is already losing profit and will got the way of Radio Shack and Circuit City; remember them?
Apple makes more profit per square foot than any retailer in the world
It is a fact that Apple users have a higher income and more disposable income than any other electronic company, so with the most heeled customers boycotting these companies they will feel it in their bottom line.
the third issue you mentioned about market share: The are also blocking Android phones with NFC. Here is a prediction: CurrentC will be an abject failure
AstroTurf much?
Ahem. If Rite Aid and CVS had to turn off NFC to prevent MCX from suing them, why was NFC turned on in the first place? Everyone here is forgetting Google Wallet has been active for a couple of years. If these retailers are actually prohibited from allowing a competing smartphone payment system, why was Google Wallet allowed to continue? Huh?
——RM
What you (and apparently they) fail to understand is that what’s good for consumers (security and privacy) is ultimately good for these companies. Anything else is noise that will damage the retailers’ reputations, discourage consumers, and hinder sales.
Not only i already have..
I have written to both companies Objecting their manipulative and stupid tacticts!
I suggest everyone to do so…
I’ve also written to the companies AND I have posted a few times on the CVS Facebook page. They’re getting quite a bit of activity on this there.
I sent my boycott notice to CVS over the weekend. I did not do it just because I own the new iPhone. I did it because I am against anti-competitive initiatives.
I don’t get the benefit to the customer. How is this easier than pulling out your debit card, swiping, and entering your pin? Like anyone with a healthy bank account is gonna give that info to bottom feeder retailers in exchange for $.25 off toothpaste?
It isn’t easier. It’s a lot more complicated. Nobody who owns a credit card is going to use it. Nobody without a checking account can use it. Who does that leave as their customers?
CurrentC has 1,228 ratings in the App Store, almost all of which are 1 star. I know the users are biased, but the reviews are terrible.
Apple should ban the app from the App Store.
Nah. Let competition take place and let the customers compare. Every examination of CurrentC technology points out the difference. CurrentC is a loser.
Apple and Google should both ban it! It will be hard to get off the ground without any smartphones to use it on!
I used that app, “Belly” for a loyalty program at local restaurant. It uses the Q-code. Even though Belly shows up in Passbook it is still a bit of a hassle to pull it up and do the routine Q-code capture; it takes more than several seconds to position properly, focus and scan the code. Ironically, the new autofocusing in iPhone 6 cameras speed up the process. Hearing about what data CurrenC is collecting from the phone I am pulling Belly off my phone today.
CurrenC is riddled with security issues, and in this day and age I don’t think anyone with with any savvy would would sign up for its use, even with the promise of significant discounts. Direct access to my bank account? They’ve got to be joking.
The best thing this consortium can do now is to re-open the NFC, and sell the use of CurrenC on it’s purported merits of coupons and discounts, and other convenience incentives. CVS already has all my family’s prescription history, thereby giving them my medical history. That’s the extent of trust I am willing to convey.
As far as I’ve heard this consortium has not said that they will disallow the use of credit cards, so it seems odd that they would shut down an alternative method of making use of those cards. Sounds like the Music mogels trying to exert control over an uncontrollable technology paradigm shift. They should focus on their core business of providing a great retail environment instead of dictating how people pay to shop in their stores.
Already voted with my wallet, er iPhone 6 on Saturday. The skeptics may say “5% market share doesn’t matter” but they have been saying that for years about Apple. The market share will grow tremendously with IWatch and iPhone as Apple catches up to demand. I don’t care what company you are…if you see 5-?15% of your (on the average more affluent) customers leave your store and walk directly to your competition, it’s gonna leave a mark.
Don’t forget to also boycott Walmart. They are also rejecting Apple Pay.
I am doing more than boycotting. I just sold all my Walmart stock.
I can’t boycott WalMart, I don’t even know where the local Walmart is. 😱
Just don’t buy that popcorn at any o’ Sam Walton’s stores, his kids are filthy rich already and here they are plottin’ to grab even more.