“JPMorgan Chase, one of the world’s biggest banks, on Monday announced a new mobile payments service meant to compete with similar offerings from tech giants Apple, Google and Samsung,” Aaron Pressman reports for Yahoo Finance. “The new service, called Chase Pay, will be available by the middle of next year. And unlike its competitors, Chase’s service will work at almost all leading retailers, including Walmart and Target. Chase Pay will also work at the most popular pharmacy, gas station and grocery chains that have lagged in adopting Apple and Google’s pay services.”
“Chase Pay will allow consumers to rack up rewards points with their Chase credit cards as well as with retailers’ loyalty and rewards programs, Gordon Smith, CEO of Chase’s Consumer and Community Banking division, said in a speech at the Money 20/20 conference in Las Vegas,” Pressman reports. “Chase’s new service will rely on relatively low-tech bar codes displayed by the Chase pay app on any smartphone. Apple and Google are using a more modern wireless technology that relies on a Near Field Communications, or NFC, chip which is only included in some phones. But Apple doesn’t allow any other company’s apps to access the NFC chips in iPhone, putting would-be competitors in a tough position. ”
“Making a consumer scan the code for a purchase is slower and more cumbersome that the ‘tap and pay’ enabled by NFC chips,” Pressman reports. “Chase is partnering with the Merchant Customer Exchange LLC’s CurrentC service, a joint venture established by the big retailers to create a payments service. There is some irony in Chase partnering with CurrentC. Big retailers set up the venture in 2012 with the hopes of convincing consumers to pay more frequently with store-issued private label cards and debit cards rather than credit cards issued by Chase and other banks, which carry higher transaction fees for the retailers. But CurrentC has yet to offer a product beyond a small beta test and has been leapfrogged by Apple.”
“Apple will have more than a one year headstart on Chase, but most consumers have yet to try Apple Pay,” Pressman reports. “A new survey from Phoenix Marketing released on Monday found only 14% of U.S. households with a credit or debit card have tried Apple Pay even one time over the past year.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Scanning bar codes? Welcome to the Aughts!
Whenever Apple wants to get serious, they should kneecap this crap. As we wrote in August:
Apple, give us a reason to use Apple Pay beyond looking like tech dorks in front of the line at the register. What’s the incentive to use Apple Pay? There is none besides looking like a flaming nerd. As if Apple doesn’t have any money. That, inexplicably, is how they approach Apple Pay. Hello, Tim? Eddy? Talk to some people who actually go to stores and shop for things, please.
Incentivize its use! Give Apple Pay users a percentage of every dollar spent via Apple Pay to spend at Apple Stores. Something. Anything! Get people used to using it first. Sheesh. It’s really not that difficult. It really isn’t.
SEE ALSO:
Starbucks, KFC, and Chili’s to accept Apple Pay this year – October 8, 2015
Barclays to bring Apple Pay to the UK in early 2016 – October 7, 2015
Some Best Buy stores are now accepting Apple Pay – September 18, 2015
MCX CEO gone a day after Apple Pay lands Best Buy – April 28, 2015
Best Buy capitulates, to accept Apple Pay despite CurrentC allegiance – April 27, 2015
Major retailers see Apple Pay wave – November 17, 2014
In only 3 weeks, Apple Pay is changing how consumers pay – November 17, 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