“By all accounts, Apple has created the smoothest, most technically advanced payment solution yet,” Matthew Mombrea writes for ITWorld. “Working closely with VISA, Apple has solved many complex security issues making in person payments safer than ever while simultaneously making mobile payments easier than ever. No small feat. ”
“Lurking in the shadows however is a competing solution called CurrentC which has recently gained a lot of press as backers of the project moved to block NFC payments (Apple Pay, Google Wallet, etc.) at their retail terminals,” Mombrea writes. “The strength of the merchants designing or backing CurrentC is enormous. It reads like a greatest hits list of retail outfits and leading the way is the biggest of them all, Walmart. The retailers have joined together to create a platform that is independent of the credit card companies and their profit-robbing transaction fees. Hooking directly to your bank account rather than a credit or debit card, CurrentC will use good old ACH to transfer money from your account to the merchant’s bank account at little to no cost (fees can vary but are generally flat-rate pennies rather than a percentage of the transaction).”
“This is huge for the merchants who are losing a significant amount of money on every credit card transaction,” Mombrea writes. “Their system [CurrentC] is largely driven by QR codes which makes it prehistoric in comparison (people scanning QR codes) but has the benefit of working on the broadest range of devices… Normally I’d say that the product with the most user appeal will win but the power and size behind the CurrentC group is too big to ignore… If you frequent a store that is pushing CurrentC, you’re not likely to hold out for long, especially if that store is your normal grocery store where shopper club discounts are significant (current supporters include Giant Eagle, Publix, Shop Rite, Acme, Meijer, Price Rite, and Sams Club).”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lee” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
How to punish Walmart, CVS, Rite Aid, and others who block Apple Pay – October 29, 2014
iPhone users and Android settlers raid reviews of CurrentC payments app – October 29, 2014
Retailer-backed MCX Apple Pay rival has already been hacked; testers’ email addresses stolen – October 29, 2014
Why Walmart, CVS and Rite-Aid really hate Apple Pay: They can’t track your buying habits – October 29, 2014
CurrentC retailers’ conundrum: MCX contract expressly bars Apple Pay acceptance – October 29, 2014
Retailers like CVS and Rite Aid that block Apple Pay are taking a big security risk – October 28, 2014
Apple Pay tussle with CVS, Rite Aid the first shot in mobile payments war – October 28, 2014
In one week, Apple Pay already No. 1; used more than all other mobile payment systems combined – October 28, 2014
Alibaba’s Jack Ma says open to working with Apple on Apple Pay – October 28, 2014
Tim Cook blasts CVS, Rite Aid over Apple Pay blockade: ‘You only are relevant if your customers love you’ – October 28, 2014
Seeking personal data, Walmart, Best Buy, and others won’t let shoppers enjoy Apple Pay privacy – October 27, 2014
Boycott CVS and Rite Aid – October 27, 2014
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
How many fights has Apple lost? How many fights have the banks & credit card companies backing Apple Pay lost?
LETS ALL REVIEW THE APP. CurrentC is available for download now, and has thousands of reviews with an average of 1 star. Let’s make it millions.
“in the end”? It’s already over.
Wow, what a lame comment. Let me try again: It’s already over for CurrentC.
CurrentC is a horrible beta kludge.
The whole reason people at big box stores use credit cards is that they live paycheck to paycheck and have no money in their accounts.
People with money want the miles, and Amex and some other cards offer purchase protection so CurrentC does not work for the wealthy audience.
For corporate purchasing Apple Pay does not interrupt my existing expense workflow, tracking back to the card I use for work expenses. CurrentC does not work at all for business travel because I cannot tap my company’s bank account – I’d much rather put expenses on my credit card and hopefully get them reimbursed before the bill is due.
Wal-mart? The company that is killing America one small town at a time? Never, EVER shop there anyway.
Probably not of lot of iPhone users in there anyway. More likely people holding Zunes thinking they are phones. Shoddy products draw shoddy people.
Fock Wal mart
It figures that an IT magazine would be so clueless.
It must’ve taken that publication a long time to find someone stupid enough to write that article. Oh wait, IT publication, never mind.
Why do you suppose credit-card companies were willing to hook up with Apple? Do you suppose the threat that CurrentC would shut them out of a lot of transactions had anything to do with it? Maybe we should be thankful for CurrentC because it compelled credit card companies to sign-up for Apple pay. (I am not saying that CurrentC will succeed, nor that I like it, just that it served a purpose)
This is the first I’m hearing that CurrentC does not deal with credit cards. If that’s true, they’re not going to go too far. I think credit cards are used widely for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the ability to defer payments. If everyone were willing or able to use their debit cards, the credit card industry would have shut down long ago.
Apple pay will gain traction and succeed despite the cartel opposing it. (Maybe Obama’s Department of Justice should go after this cartel, ‘eh?) Oh that would require that they have a clue. Nevermind.
The giant retailers will realize that refusing Apple pay costs them business. They will relent and allow members of their cartel to accept Apple Pay.
CurrentC will survive (maybe) or die (more likely) on it’s own dubious merits. As long as CurrentC does not rule-out Apple pay I see no reason to hate it. I have no love for credit-card companies and their fees.
I read the title, and said to myself, “huh?”
Then I read the article summary. I got the impression that the author left the /s off the end of the title.
One point needs to be clarified. In no way does the fact that CurrentIC is being backed by merchants indicate its success.
The success or failure of Apple Pay or CurrentIC lies solely with the customer, not the merchant.
So, merchants can say the back it all they want. But in the end it won’t matter.
Merchants don’t take VISA and MasterCard because the want to offer it, they take it because the consumer demands they take it else they shop elsewhere.
Keep an eye on consumer spends Ng trends. In the long run, you can safely ignore any talk of what merchants are backing. (After consumers are educated about Apple Pay, just like they were educated about CCards).
QR codes?! Are you kidding me? Even Microsoft wouldn’t produce something this antediluvian.
Swipe – type in passcode – find QR code scanning app – launch it – scan the QR code. Way too many steps. This is why I’ve never, ever scanned a QR code. It’s a PITA. Easier to just pull my plastic card out of my wallet.
Epic fail.
Hey retailers, you will never get direct access to my checking account. Never!
Oh the poor merchants who are loosing so much money to those darn fees… Why doesn’t Walmart just tell visa how much they will pay them. I feel so sorry for all the billion dollar stores who have to pay some fees to do business.. It must be rough.
this isn’t about win/lose it’s about co-existence. Bring it on CurrenC let us have our choices of new world digital payment solutions..I’m cool with two..but ACCEPT BOTH.
Which version(s) of Android will support the CurrentC app? I’ll bet half a bag of crispy pork rinds and most of a glass of beer you’ll never see it in the iOS app store.
One point I haven’t read yet is that:
NOTHING is stopping Apple Pay accepting retailers from continuing to use shopper cards. So if these CurrentC thralls want to continue surveilling their customer’s shopping behavior ad nauseam, they are perfectly free to do so.
What CurrentC thralls lose is all the OTHER privacy information they crave:
– email addresses
– SS#
– Bank account numbers
– Driver’s license numbers
Isn’t that just too sad.
this article is stupid
why would I use CurrentC when it’s harder to use than my Chip credit card? I just tap a chip CC to a terminal.
Apple Pay is as easy as chip card but currentC seems way harder.
Apple Pay is better than chip cards as it’s got more security features.
as Gruber said: CurrentC is designed to solve Retailers problems not consumers.
CurrentC is doomed cuz all of its clientz is gonna be boycotted by them righteous Apple Fansheep and CurrentC gonna be crying from all them 1-star reviews the Fansheep gonna be posting. And then the Steve Jobs will return from heaven and bring us all up there to the great Windowless Paradise in the Sky!!!!
Just returned from a Black Sea cruise, with port calls to backwaters such as Bulgaria, Georgia, and Romania. NFC payment terminals were virtually everywhere, from merchants, to stand-alone kiosks to pay electric and water bills. We’re not so much on the leading edge as we’d like to think. If they get it there, Apple has no worries here!
If I pay my cc off each month, I’m ahead as I’m borrowing money for free. Conversely, if I use the other, they take my money immediately. No brainier for me.
I suggest that the executives of all retailers that support CurrentC take a simple lesson from the swaggering Nokia team and their response to the iPhone introduction in 2007, which went something like:
“Apple Computer can’t just enter the mobile phone business and change it; we have over 20 years in this business” …..
We all know what happened next ……
The same fate awaits those retailers that bury their heads in the sand and ignore customer choice and momentum!!!!
How to protest — and profit
You can’t do too much about wireless carriers throwing their weight around, but when a CVS, a Rite Aid, or another store rejects your phone payment, you can punish them by socking them with transaction fees. Instead of using their mobile payment system, whip out your credit card. And not just any credit card, but one with a higher transaction fee.
Visa – between 1.15 to 1.65 percent for the merchant to accept
Visa labeled “Signature Preferred” – 2.1 to 2.4 percent for the merchant to accept
American Express – 2.89 to 3.2 percent for the merchant to accept
And since most of these premium cards reward your spending with cash or points back, the word for using them to punish a control-freak merchant can be not just “priceless,” but “profitable.”
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http://wh.gov/icBmj
If the places that are going to be using the CurrentC system are doing it to not have to pay any fees to the credit card companies, are they going to being be giving that cost saving back to the customer? After all they have the cost of those fees built into the price being charged for the goods being sold.
I heard mention of Apple Pay possibly being used for payment on transit systems. In order to know what journey’s people have made and to then charge appropriately a system needs to know where you start and where you stop. In order to be able to tie those two together there needs to be some way of Apple Pay identifying you to the system? If that was the case surely (charges aside) that would satisfy most retailers for their information gathering purposes ie knowing who is spending what, when.