Contactless / Apple Pay ATM's

[AaronG123]

So I’ve recently come back from Ibiza; amazing…!

I noticed contactless ATM’s are prominent and very common over there; in 2 forms.

The first being Bank operated/offered ATM’s; which are sophisticated and in some forms excessive perhaps. These seem to only work with contactless cards. Tap, enter pin and then tap again upon cash withdrawal for authorisation.

The second is what I refer to the tourist trap ATM’s; the ones that are standalone with British, German, French flags over that conveniently charge for the use & offer a poor exchange rate. Some of these also offer contactless support; however also advertise Apple & Google Pay functionality.

So here lies the debate - how does this work? & why are these ATM’s not yet common in the UK?

As far as I am aware; it is impossible for an ATM to relate a Apple/Google Pay device to a customers account - due to the individual specific device account number used to protect the identity/not transfer card details to the NFC receiver.

Barclays I believe are the only ATM provider in the UK to be trialling a form of contactless ATM’s in the UK. These however are limited to ‘in branch’ and Android only, requiring a separate app.

 

[ecschwarz]

I can't speak to the UK specifically, but in the US, both Chase and Bank of America have started rolling out NFC-capable ATMs (some others may, too, but I used BofA on a brand new ATM and a Chase one on a few retrofit older ones). From my understanding, it appears to be no different than a normal Apple Pay card read (device account number is sent instead of the actual card number, matched up on th issuer's side). It seems that it's mostly a cost to add the reader and process to implement it (ATM software and such), but once it's up and running, it works just like a physical card.

 

[AaronG123]

I can't speak to the UK specifically, but in the US, both Chase and Bank of America have started rolling out NFC-capable ATMs (some others may, too, but I used BofA on a brand new ATM and a Chase one on a few retrofit older ones). From my understanding, it appears to be no different than a normal Apple Pay card read (device account number is sent instead of the actual card number, matched up on th issuer's side). It seems that it's mostly a cost to add the reader and process to implement it (ATM software and such), but once it's up and running, it works just like a physical card.

Interesting; so if you say had a Chase card and attempted to use Apple Pay at a Bank of America ATM - this works? Ie they are not restricted to customers when used with Apple Pay? Just wondering how the device account number is checked & whether this is extra effort on the business/bank implementing the ATM (an excuse not to implement).

I've since noticed another bank, Santander over here provides contactless readers - however these do not work with Apple Pay; only standard contactless cards.

 

[ecschwarz]

Interesting; so if you say had a Chase card and attempted to use Apple Pay at a Bank of America ATM - this works? Ie they are not restricted to customers when used with Apple Pay? Just wondering how the device account number is checked & whether this is extra effort on the business/bank implementing the ATM (an excuse not to implement).

I think it should work, but I'll have to investigate - I don't want to pull any money out as there's always fees, but I can try my credit union's card at the Chase ATM around the corner (since the credit union supports Apple Pay, but doesn't have NFC readers on their ATMs) just to load the account and report back.

For what it's worth, when I had a Bank of America account, using Apple Pay on their ATMs would only display the city name on the Wallet app (i.e. Chicago, IL or Indianapolis, IN) - this seems to be the behavior that Apple Pay does when a read happens, but there's no merchant information or merchant information loaded (I've had a few places do NFC reads before the total happens and usually just the place shows up until a couple of minutes later when the store populates).

I would guess that whatever is being done to check if the device account number is a valid one is the same way that a card is being checked as valid, but I can only try to connect the dots since I'm not seeing what's going on under the hood.

 

[ecschwarz]

Just an update - using another card (debit or credit) of any sort at a Chase ATM results in a message that you must use a Chase debit or Liquid (their prepaid debit) card only. Can't speak for Bank of America, but I'm guessing they're only verifying device account numbers against their own system.

 

[AaronG123]

Just an update - using another card (debit or credit) of any sort at a Chase ATM results in a message that you must use a Chase debit or Liquid (their prepaid debit) card only. Can't speak for Bank of America, but I'm guessing they're only verifying device account numbers against their own system.

That’s interesting! Thanks for checking it out; as you say - it must just be certifying against their own database. Therefore other bank’s Apple Pay cards are not going to work... a little disappointing, as this is going to become fragmented fast!
I’m not sure what the solution is though... it might need Apple to intervene and provide a solution. The issue is, as soon as you have a database of device account numbers that all banks/ATM’s can access you open yourselves up.