I've actually seen contactless not work despite having the four rectangles. The key in my experience is the leftmost one needing to be green and not just gray/clear, which I wasn't able to confirm.
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Major Retailers that Support NFC Payments
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I've actually seen contactless not work despite having the four rectangles. The key in my experience is the leftmost one needing to be green and not just gray/clear, which I wasn't able to confirm.
Well I sure hope it is working at Chipotle.
Since you seem to be more knowledgeable on the topic than I am, let me ask you something. Do you know what the reason could be for so many retailers using vx820s in Mexico (all but one of them, actually) to have the NFC turned off? could it be that their payment software is too old? because it’s kind of shocking that they didn’t turn on their NFC readers for Samsung Pay and instead continue forcing everyone to use Samsung Pay over MST when their VX820s do have a built in NFC reader.
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Something that NCR sells. Unfortunately, I’m not well versed in payment readers so if you can identify it from this picture I took, feel free.
That’s an interesting one but I presume we will see more hardware like this in restaurant and quick service settings. I’m all for it as it means more Apple Pay.Something that NCR sells. Unfortunately, I’m not well versed in payment readers so if you can identify it from this picture I took, feel free.
Considering that it's not exactly customer accessible at the one I went to, the possibility is there that contactless doesn't actually work. However, if they're fine handing it over if you ask to use Apple Pay, it's probably to "make the line move faster" (which is why a lot of other food places do the same thing).
I don't really know much about why the Mexican payment processors would keep it disabled. Extra costs to the merchant to enable it and/or per transaction, maybe? (It's why a fair number of New Zealand merchants are now disabling contactless, for instance.)
Also, there's not as much of a need to enable NFC if the NFC-only mobile wallets aren't in Mexico anyway and if there aren't many contactless cards. Doing so requires development/certification, after all, which costs time and money.
Something that NCR sells. Unfortunately, I’m not well versed in payment readers so if you can identify it from this picture I took, feel free.
It looks like one of NCR's newer POSes/customer facing displays (PX/CX7?) but there's not enough visible to be 100% sure. The reader portion may be from a third party, however, since I can't find anything on their website about it. Any ideas would be appreciated.
Heck, if something without a PIN pad makes them more likely to upgrade for EMV at all, it might be acceptable. A lot of table service restaurants for instance very well would never have upgraded as long as pay at the table/counter was basically mandatory--or taken so long that the liability shift ends up being changed by the networks to a strict mandate (whereby the magstripe on cards simply stops working after X date or is at least disabled by default after that point).
Anyway, the more surprising thing is that there's a way for the customer to swipe/insert themselves. I expected only the contactless interface to be customer accessible at best (and that's pretty much the case at a lot of places with PIN pads too, even though it's not supposed to be).
+ Souplantation/Sweet Tomatoes. Will need to go back and actually attempt tap to see how it goes.
It’s not the payment processors, it’s the merchants. The proof is that standalone POS terminals such as the verifone vx520 or ingenico move 2500 usually do have the NFC turned on, so payment processors do support NFC contactless. It’s the pinpads connected to the cash register in integrated POS systems, such as the verifone vx820 or the ingenico ipp320, that always have the NFC reader turned off. Question is why that is happening. Especially considering that many of those pinpads were supplied to the merchants by banks that do offer their customers mobile wallet apps for NFC contactless payment such as BBVA Wallet or Citibanamex Pay.
It could still be the payment processors. For example, with gas pumps, despite there being a relatively small number of manufacturers, there is development/certification that has to be done for each product/processor combination. Just because a gas station using NCR with First Data can enable chip support outside doesn't mean that a WorldPay gas station using the same POS can do the same. Contactless also requires similar certification, which can potentially be even more work than just enabling chip support since each card brand has its own standard.
(BTW, the above comes from here. We might not want to expect most US gas pumps to be chip enabled until sometime next year, unfortunately.)
I doubt it. Most of the big retailers using vx820 or ipp320 pinpads in Mexico have either BBVA or Citibanamex as the bank that provides their payment services and supplies the pinpads. And both of those banks have been supporting NFC contactless payment for several years because they both offer mobile wallet apps for their customers (mostly for customers using Android phones, as the NFC on iphones is locked up), so I assume those banks would much prefer that all their affiliated merchants have the contactless readers enabled on the pinpads. That’s why I think it’s the stores that are turning it off and I wonder why (maybe out of ignorance because they think they won’t use it and likely don’t realize that Samsung Pay can use it because Samsung told them there was no need to update anything), and not the payment providers. Small merchants and other businesses, on the other hand, have no chance to turn NFC off because the banks supply their standalone wireless terminals already configured and ready to use and don’t provide them with access to the NFC setting.
Why are most readers in the US so huge and bulky?
Most in the UK are similar to this
Most in the UK are similar to this
Why are most readers in the US so huge and bulky?
Most in the UK are similar to this
I blame chip and signature, honestly. The smaller ones would require them to keep paper receipts around, which I imagine would be a pain for a lot of places.
It’s also about being fancy. As the saying goes, everything is bigger in America.Why are most readers in the US so huge and bulky?
Most in the UK are similar to this
also a lot of the reason is that these things do more than process cards. A lot of states require you to list line items as it’s being rung up, the terminal would display those line items. Instead of having to purchase a second monitor they saved money by having this display it.
And some places uses it to sign contracts, etc.
A lot of places require an email or a phone number, for loyalty, and it’s much easier to key it in on a larger touchscreen.
oh and of course, one thing the US loves, show ads on it.
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A lot of places use the giant terminals don’t even have a pen attached for the signature, because they don’t even collect them, such as McDonald’s.
They use the terminals for more than credit cards a lot of the times. For example at Walmart, I signed contracts for a phone on one.
I agree with other people, I think it’s due to the use of signatures and other features in the US. Those bulky terminals have a large touch screen that not only allows the customers to sign digitally on the screen, saving paper (otherwise they’d have to print two receipts, one to be signed and kept by the store and one for the customer to take, like they used to do here in Mexico when signatures were still in use), but also displays ads and, during checkout, the full list of the items that are being scanned. In fact, a few stores here in Mexico such as Farmacias Guadalajara, a local chain of walgreens/cvs style pharmacies, or the Soriana supermarkets, have also replaced their previous European style terminals such as the ingenico ipp 320 or verifone vx 820 with the same bulky devices used in the US such as the verifone mx 915 or ingenico isc touch 480 to use some of those additional features that the larger screen allows for and better implement other features such as contactless or QR code based payments.Why are most readers in the US so huge and bulky?
Most in the UK are similar to this
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But how do they authorize larger payments now in the US? because unlike other countries, the US eliminated signatures but refused to replace them with PIN or anything else on credit cards, so how are they handling larger purchases with credit cards?
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That was a recent change, though. I’m pretty sure all those terminals did come from the factory with the plastic pen attached and some merchants such as McDonalds detached all the pens from their terminals when the signature requirement was dropped. The same happened here in Mexico: a local chain of CVS/Walgreens style pharmacies, Farmacias Guadalajara, removed all the plastic styluses from their current ingenico isc 480 devices when they were installed since the company wasn’t interested at all in having the customers sign electronically on the screen and never intended to enable that feature. Now that signatures have been dropped in favor of using the PIN instead, they’re even less likely to ever enable that feature in the future.
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Don't know. I haven't signed my real signature in at least ten years. I write a squiggly line when I use a credit card.
Here's a story about the signature requirement dropping: https://fortune.com/2018/04/10/credit-card-signatures/
Officially no signature/PIN's required regardless of amount. In practice, well...
I've read stuff that seemed to imply that restaurants are very wary of killing the signature line for fear of reducing/eliminating tips. It also doesn't help that Visa only allows getting rid of the signature line if chip's supported (which still isn't as common in restaurants vs. other businesses).
BTW the rule changes make signature an optional thing for merchants to collect, instead of required as before. Not that merchants have to stop asking altogether.
That’s very unsafe. Makes things too easy for card skimmers.
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You gotta stop shopping there and find an opportunity to let them know why you did. It’s the only way to make them understand.
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Chip isn’t so uncommon at US restaurants. A lot already did upgrade to chip, but when they did they chose to use a wired reader connected to the computer instead of a standalone wireless one that can be brought over to the tables and that’s why they still have to take away the customers’ cards. In any case, not replacing the signature with anything else to authorize a payment is highly unsafe. That’s lousy security. The signature should have been replaced by PIN like everywhere else. What is the Americans’ problem with PIN? they already use it for debit payments anyway, why not for credit as well?
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I mean, if you're inserting or tapping anyway, it shouldn't matter whether PIN is used for the purposes of avoiding skimming. Lost/stolen fraud, on the other hand, matters a bit more (and it's apparent that there's either not enough of it in the US for issuers to care and/or they're okay with covering the current fraud losses).
Sure, it's more common now, but a lot of them didn't bother even doing that until recently. In fact, this seems pretty common with travel related merchants in general; I was just on a trip recently where I didn't have to insert for my hotel or car rental (though to be fair, Avis used the card I put in online anyway so it might not have mattered whether they had chip readers or not).
It does matter for the purpose of avoiding skimming. If a card is protected by a PIN, it’s a bit harder for the skimmers to make purchases using the card details they skimmed from the magnetic stripe. In fact, that was part of the reason for switching from signature to PIN in many countries. The other part was obviously fraud due to lost or stolen cards. As for the statement in the parentheses, that’s 100% true. Americans are hardly if at all worried about card fraud, especially the card issuers and the merchants.
It's getting better though. I used Apple Pay at Blaze Pizza today. The reader had a pen for digital signatures and I wasn't asked to make one.
Skimming devices are usually installed with a camera or keypad overlay that retrieves the user's PIN at the same time, so just requiring a PIN isn't going to help prevent it.
Good to hear. I kinda wonder if there'll always be the one or two holdouts that ask (though one would hope that customer pressure would make them reluctantly concede eventually).
Not sure if anyone has seen this (apologize if it is somewere I missed). There is now a work a round to use Apple Pay at Walmart through the Ibotta app. The Ibotta app supports Apple Pay and has a new "Pay with Ibotta" feature. Get your stuff at Walmart. Go to checkout. Open Ibotta App. Choose Walmart. Then input the $ you owe. This will then purchase a "digital gift card" with your Apple Pay. Then scan the code at the self check out or tell the person to run as gift card and scan. There is no doubt this is way more cumbersome than simply using Apple Pay, but is a way to use Apple Pay and not your card at Walmart.