“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
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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
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Right!! I want retailers to have a link to my checking account. Can’t wait. Imagine, Target gets hacked again and this time the hackers gain access to my bank. I can’t wait for this opportunity. Better yet, if you use a checking account linked to your brokerage account the hackers will have access there too. What a great concept!
So let’s look at the facts:
1) There is an EMV mandate by October 2015 that requires all merchants to upgrade their Pin-pad devices to accept EMV cards (Chip & Pin, Chip & Signature cards)
2) The vast majority (if not all) of EMV pin-pads support NFC
3) This is a major expense to merchants as the cost is per register/Point Of Sale device.
4) ApplePay and Google Wallet use NFC
5) CurrentC is set up to use QRCodes
6) QR Codes are a type of 2 dimensional bar-code technology
7) Most Merchant scanners at the Point Of Sale do not support scanning QR barcodes.
8) Since there is no mandate to update the Point Of Sale scanners, and Scanners cost money (again 1 per Point of Sale device) Merchant Adoption will be slow if ever.
Opinion:
Walmart has been trying to save the 2% processing fee for years, even attempting to purchase or get granted a bank charter of it’s own in order to avoid the fees. The Fed denied them for a myriad of reasons. Walmart is trying to save approximately $9+ Billion in fees.
America runs on credit/debit transactions, with all of the breaches, the consumer isn’t going to tie their personal accounts to a payment method directly without a middleman assuming the fraud risk. (i.e. $50 or free if card is lost or stolen and used).
CurrentC in it’s present form is going nowhere
The banks hold the key. The cost of direct pay from a bank is not free. Each transaction is charged for. Right now it is cheaper for me to use a credit card because in the end it is only one bank transaction per month as opposed to upwards of a hundred using direct debit which would cost a fair bit per month. Now the credit card transaction is a charge that allows me to collect credit card kickback. There is no way that CurrentC will be cheaper. (for some accounts there is a 76 cent fee for every transaction over a base number. That is equivalent to a 7.6% fee for a $10 debit at Walmart etc ) AND WHO ARE THE BANKS SUPPORTING !!
Stupidity of CurrentC:
1. won’t launch till 2015 maybe (it’s beta now)
2. insecure
3. Fucks your privacy (not change to traditional corporate abuse)
4. greedy (saves retailers credit fees not you + disallows you to buy on credit)
etc.
Read / sign pledge for all pros/cons, help yourself to Choice: You Pay, so you command HOW!
There might not (yet) be an app for that ; )
but there IS a pledge ; )
https://www.causes.com/campaigns/85331-boycott-anti-consumer-anti-applepay-retailer-trend
pledge expires Dec27!
sign. YOU choose HOW you PAY.
F’ retailers’ dicktatorship.
Power to the PEOPLE!
Do you Americans know anything about Debit Cards?
The author is a fool at best. A hit-whore at worst. There’s no way anyone can actually believe that MCX will win or that any customer in this day and age of hacks and lack of security is going to give their social security number, driver’s license, bank account numbers, etc… just to buy from Rite Aid.
There’s a good reason CC companies charge a fee – they take the risk. And everyone knows someone who has had a fraudulent charge show up on their card.
Any direct deduct system is stillborn. Period.
It doesn’t matter that Walmart is leading the way. Their clientele is a bunch of barely literate, never mind techo-literate goobers who can’t afford a smartphone anyway.
Do these people look like Apple users to you? http://www.peopleofwalmart.com
——RM
If CurrentC locks customers out of in-store coupons, points, incentives, etc, then people will shop where they’re not locked out with Apple Pay or use their credit cards for the club savings whether they have new iPhones or not. CurrentC has a very steep slope to climb given the downside of the direct to bank account lack of protection and ability to manage when they actually pay their credit card bills. What these retailers (in their greed for the short term fee savings) are failing to see is that they sell products, services and trust, not transactions. ApplePay doesn’t attempt to change people’s spending and paying behavior, CurrentC does. When people never use CurrentC, those retailers will realize how short sighted they were, and things will change, but by then, they will have gotten themselves behind the curve, and potentially would have lost customers.
I also read this: “Instead of holding your phone near the terminal and authenticating your fingerprint with Touch ID, CurrentC will require you to open the app, authenticate the transaction with a four-digit pin, and generate a QR code to hand off to the cashier. Apple Pay requires no cashier involvement whatsoever. You don’t even have to wake your phone: Holding it near the NFC reader puts the process in motion.” I mean why bother? What a pain in the A$$.
Yes it totally makes sense to me that the most popular smart phone payment system will be eclipsed by a system that shares information – exactly what the customer might be looking for. I guess if you consider that line voice Russian view that Cook’s travel to Russia should be banned as he is gay as valid – sure this also makes sense (?) otherwise – add that system to the eclipsed list as well…