ATT store Apple pay, why even bother?

[Viantay]

I went to the AT&T store today to sign up for the unlimited plan and DirecTV and when we got to the point that I needed to pay I told her I wanted to use Apple Pay. I held my phone over the reader and it was accepted. She then says "what are the 3 digits on the back of the card?". What? Why bother with Apple Pay if I need my card on me? When I walked in I thought "oh man I don't have my card, oh well they accept Apple Pay, good to go". Went through the whole process of setting up directv and got to the end and didn't have a way to pay....oh well. It's probably for the best, I don't really need directv.

I mentioned to her, "why bother with Apple Pay if you want info off my card". She just said, "it's just the way our system works.

Oh well.

 

[C DM]

Perhaps a store policy that hasn't been properly updated and/or an employee that wasn't following the policy properly?

 

[lordofthereef]

I have my back three digits memorized, but I get your point lol. Very strange.

 

[adamhenry]

Since they didn't have access to your card #, any 3 digit # would have worked.

 

[jetsam]

One of the main security points of Apple Pay is that the merchant doesn't get any information off your card - not even your name. You probably could have given the clerk any three digits, since she had no way to verify them, anyhow.

 

[cynics]

I use Apple Pay very often and never needed additional information aside from a signature at times. It's the entire point of Apple Pay. Like others mentioned, next time try a random numbers.

It's a strange request anyway. If they don't know the card info how did they know they needed 3 digital number on the back? AMEX has 4 digits, and it's on the front. Lol

 

[Viantay]

One of the main security points of Apple Pay is that the merchant doesn't get any information off your card - not even your name. You probably could have given the clerk any three digits, since she had no way to verify them, anyhow.

I'll try that if it happens again. I've never had it happen though...weird.

 

[titans1127]

Don't feel bad, I work at an ATT corporate store and when I bought my moms new phone I went to pay with Apple Pay and got a "transaction declined" error twice with 2 different cards. Wound up just swiping the physical card with no issues.

Reasons like this is why I would never rely on Apple Pay on being my only way to pay for something.

 

[JohnApples]

Similar thing happened to me at Best Buy earlier (sorta).

When they first started accepting ApplePay, it worked just as Apple advertised. Today, however, I was required to give my signature. Why? It worked perfect before. Even though I can just scribble pretty much anything, it was an unnecessary step and just wasted more time.

 

[maxsix]

Apple Pay is still hit and miss. With no advantage to stores many like AT&T just don't bother.

 

[C DM]

Similar thing happened to me at Best Buy earlier (sorta).

When they first started accepting ApplePay, it worked just as Apple advertised. Today, however, I was required to give my signature. Why? It worked perfect before. Even though I can just scribble pretty much anything, it was an unnecessary step and just wasted more time.

Perhaps the amount involved? Credit cards in US still use signatures when used in person (more and more for larger vs smaller purchases).

 

[theonekcrow]

I have used Apple Pay at an AT&T corporate store before (purchased my wife's Surface 3 accessories with it) worked flawlessly and didn't need the 3 digit number on the back. Must have been a problem at that specific store.

 

[JohnApples]

Perhaps the amount involved? Credit cards in US still use signatures when used in person (more and more for larger vs smaller purchases).

You know I didn't think of that. Could be. I've bought several things there with ApplePay that were in the $50's, but this time it was something that was just over $60. Seems like a weird threshold, but maybe anything above $60 triggers the signature requirement.

 

[C DM]

You know I didn't think of that. Could be. I've bought several things there with ApplePay that were in the $50's, but this time it was something that was just over $60. Seems like a weird threshold, but maybe anything above $60 triggers the signature requirement.

Yeah it seems different stores have different polices about that. Not sure why the credit card issuers can't just set some threshold like $100 so that it's across the board basically.