“It’s as if the Three Stooges had been given the assignment of introducing a new and safer way for consumers to pay at some of the biggest retail stores. CurrentC is the new smartphone payment system from a consortium of retailers, including Best Buy, WalMart, Target and Sears, all hurting from poor sales,” Jefferson Graham writes for USA Today. “The system is currently being test-marketed at some “confidential” locations. And this week, the company behind it had to admit some really damaging news: the system has already been hacked. Before it’s even launched.”
“The odds that you’ll ever see CurrentC rolled out nationally are slim to none,” Graham writes. “CurrentC, run by the Boston-based Merchant Customer Exchange (known as MCX), has the misfortune of following in the footsteps of Apple’s hugely successful mobile payment launch, which nabbed 1 million new customers in three days and has drawn rave reviews. Apple Pay is the most consumer friendly mobile payment system we’ve seen yet. It solves the security hurdle (just who are you giving your credit card to?) and speed (fumbling for your wallet and credit card.)”
“Instead of fingerprint technology, CurrentC uses the clunky QR code system, an idea whose time has yet to come. To register, you have to give MCX your social security number and banking information. And, the system has already been hacked. Would you trust these folks with your info?” Graham writes. “Prediction: one by one, in weeks, if not days, many of these partners will backtrack, and end up signing with Apple….”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Unlike CurrentC, Apple doesn’t save your transaction information. With Apple Pay, your payments are private. Apple Pay doesn’t store the details of your transactions so they can’t be tied back to you. That is what Walmart, CVS, Rite-Aid et al. hate about Apple Pay and why they currently won’t accept it.
Boycott non-cash payment systems from any company that willfully turns off NFC in an effort to block the vastly more secure, much more private, and far easier-to-use Apple Pay service.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Heysailor” for the heads up.]
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