“Apple’s plan to transform the world of credit cards in the image of Apple Card seems to have progressed further than anyone might have thought, thanks to a top-secret project with Mastercard,” Jonny Evans writes for Computerworld.
“The news is that Apple, Goldman Sachs and Mastercard have been quietly working together to make similar technologies available for use by other card issuers,” Evans writes. “Payments Source claims the project has been ongoing for 18-months and means banks will be able to use Mastercard’s system to offer digital-only cards.”
Read more in the full article here.
MasterCard’s “platform carries over many of the features that Apple Card users will get, according to Chris Reid, Mastercard’s executive vice president of cyber intelligence and data services for North America,” Daniel Wolfe writes for PaymentsSource. “To Reid’s knowledge, Mastercard doesn’t have any other issuers signed up for this platform yet. Reid attributed that to the secrecy surrounding the platform’s development under Apple’s strict NDAs. Any bank that wants to launch a card on this platform can do so in six months, he said.”
“Mastercard isn’t offering an exact duplicate of Apple’s ecosystem — many banks probably would be happy issuing plastic cards instead of Apple’s titanium — but Reid emphasized the importance of treating this as the foundation of a digital relationship,” Wolfe writes. “The physical card would be as barren of printed information as Apple’s card is, with most of the details accessible through an app, including a dynamic CVC for online purchases.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Ah, secure payments – maybe not as pretty as a titanium Apple Card – but a change for the better nonetheless!
Now can we get rid of the dreaded magnetic strip?
The rest of the world did that years ago. Make America Non-Magnetic
Till I saw your post I was saying to myself ‘what magnetic strip’ and was about to go pull out my cards to check I hadn’t simply stopped noticing them. Surprised Apple would be happy to surrender this advantage after only 6 months mind, I guess it was the only way to get it through the door.
I can’t wait.
Digital cards have been with us for a few years via Apple Pay. I have several accounts which I use frequently, but the physical card is left at home. Nearly all my daily household bills are paid in shops via Apple Pay or by online payments and I can’t remember the last time that card was even taken out of the drawer at home.
It’s easy to select different cards in your Apple wallet and I simplify my business and personal accounts by using certain accounts for business, personal, overseas or family expenses, but I would like there to be an option for automatically selecting the card previously used for a given retailer, or else to have a default card selected unless I explicitly choose a different one. Apple Pay is so quick to use that it’s easy to make a payment using a different card to the one intended,
In the UK you can pay for almost everything using contactless payments which includes ApplePay. Unlike the US, if you see the contactless payment symbol you can use ApplePay. Retailers don’t discriminate and don’t see ApplePay as any different to any other contactless payment card. (UK retailers right now don’t want any barriers to you giving them money.)
The only thing holding me back from leaving my cards at home is a stupid £30 limit that is imposed by some retailers and banks on mobile phone payments. However many are starting to drop this limit so it’s probably only a matter of time before many in the UK just carry their phones.
This is great news that Apple is helping to push the industry to become fully digital. While we’ve had digital cards in one form or another before, Apple and MasterCard have done some pretty interesting things around the on-boarding/approval process and security side so it’s good to see those innovations wrapped up in a platform that others can use. It will make life a lot easier for all of us. I suspect in the future people will look back and laugh at the fact that we carried plastic cards around to make payments.
Every time I visit the US I’m shocked how far behind my country is from the rest of the world when it comes to payments. Until recently I still saw many Magnetic Stripe Readers about when the rest of the world dropped them long ago for Chip & Pin.
Alas, contactless payments are not the only thing the U.S. is behind with in the civilized world. Universal healthcare, gun control, environmental protection, food chain protection, gerrymandering, etc. Not to mention that the “Divine Right of Kings” applies to their president.
You mention the £30 limit for phone transactions are you talking about the £30 limit for each transaction that applies to all contactless presently or a separate limit literally on phone contactless transactions applied differently in some way to the above? Wasn’t aware if the latter, if the former one would think with the powerful layer of security touch or facial support gives the transaction itself on your phone any such limit to protect you should you lose your card is no longer required at all. I too love not having to take credit cards around anymore.
There is a £30 limit applied to each individual payment you make using your mobile phone (it applies to all phones, Apple and Android).
As I mentioned some retail and banks are now dropping this probably because that they haven’t seen any increase in fraud when using this payment method.
Mobile payments, especially Apple’s, have a higher security rating than other payment methods for obvious reasons which is partly why Apple pays lower fees.
There is also a lot of consumer pressure for this limit to be dropped as so many people in the UK now use their phone to pay for everything.
Original heading:
“Soon every credit card will be like Apple Card”
MDN heading: “Apple changes the world yet again; soon every credit card work like Apple Card”
So I guess it’s soon every credit card work like Apple Card, it work really good.
Is it just me or does that read/sound funny?
It’s just you 😄