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Major Retailers that Support NFC Payments
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I am sure most of the big US retailers will accept Apple Pay and contactless payments when Mastercard removes the magnetic stripe from their cards in 2030.
Contactless won't necessarily follow from that, just chip acceptance. Which is already damn near 100% at major retailers at this point (in my experience, anyway).
This will change when Mastercard removes the magnetic stripe from their cards in 2030.
Walmart in Canada has contactless payments from 2020.
Walmart in USA will be FORCED to accept contactless payments in the late 2020s or the early 2030s. Here is why:
As the 2020s go, the use of contactless payments and digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay will increase in the United States. More US banks will also feature contactless payments in their cards. This will cause more American businesses that do not accept contactless payments to be FORCED to accept contactless payments.
US consumers support the contactless feature on their bank cards when the pandemic started in 2020. The US businesses that do not accept contactless payments have bad reviews from US consumers because those businesses do not support contactless payments. These types of bad reviews from the US consumers are a good fit for US businesses that accept contactless payments in comparison to US businesses that do not accept contactless payments. So, in order for a good competition, those US businesses that have no contactless payments to be FORCED to accept contactless payments.
In the 2030s, bank cards from Mastercard will not have the magnetic stripe. Mastercard said that they plan to eliminate the magnetic stripe from their cards in 2030. Visa and other card companies will do the same if they want a good competition with Mastercard.
This means that US businesses that have card readers for magnetic stripe only to upgrade the card reader or the business will have to reject the use of cards from Mastercard.
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Again, removing the magnetic stripe doesn't imply that merchants will in fact start accepting contactless. All it does is force what few magstripe only merchants are around by that point to get terminals that will run the chip on cards. While it is true that it's extremely difficult (if not almost impossible) to find terminals that can run the chip but do not have contactless/NFC hardware in 2023, there's nothing keeping merchants and/or their payment processors from disabling contactless if they so choose.
Now whether there will be merchants who still keep it disabled by then--that's the big question. I can totally see Walmart keeping it turned off, for instance (especially if they can extract additional concessions from Visa and MC) but we'll have to see.
With how much Walmart has invested in Walmart Pay and will do anything to steer people to their app, I don’t see them adding contactless support.
They have gone as far as removing price scanners and say you can just check the price in the app instead. They’re really after app conversions.
... and all of this attempted culture shifting is the biggest reason why you will never find me in a Walmart store... It's not the refusal of Apple Pay as much as the attempt to force their way of doing things down our throats. Vote with your wallet (digital or otherwise).
Seven years is still a long time, so it's possible contactless usage might get high enough by then that they can't really avoid it anymore. They do have a near-monopoly in a lot of rural areas, though, so usage elsewhere ultimately may not matter much.
Not necessarily. Many sit down restaurants in the US have already upgraded to chip, but they did so by hooking up a wired pinpad to the computer and thus still need to take all the cards away. The only thing that would change that would be the US going 100% chip+pin, which is unlikely to happen.
Removing the magnetic stripe will only force the use of chip, but not contactless. Walmart will stay away from contactless until it’s mandated by the card networks, which won’t be until 2030 at least. In Canada Walmart had to relent and accept contactless both because a mandate of the networks became effective and because the customers nearly threw stones at them for being the only merchant in all of Canada not accepting contactless payments in the height of the Covid pandemic.
At least with Walmart it’s easy to vote with our wallet. It’s not as easy with other holdouts such as Home Depot, and they know that and they’re taking advantage of it.
There are always options... my local Ace Hardware has just a good of a selection of stock, generally their prices are as good as HD/Lowes, they take Apple Pay and often offer FREE assembly and delivery on large items.
Plus you can always find an available associate to ask questions at Ace versus Home Cheapo!
At the latter, their employees are always gathered around chitchatting with each other in the aisles.
Yeah some stuff you can find at other places, but Home Depot has a lot of products and brands that they sell exclusively (example: Zep cleaning products, nobody else sells them). That’s where it gets harder to vote with your wallet. And they know it, that’s why they keep refusing to accept contactless.
Oh and btw not all ace hardware stores take contactless/apple pay. Some do, others don’t.
Lowe’s in the USA will accept Apple Pay in late 2023. I think that will be a good fit for Lowe’s against Home Depot.
I wonder how will US consumers respond that Lowe’s accepts contactless payments while Home Depot does not support it. Remember contactless payments has big support by US consumers.
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The removal of the magstripe won't force Walmart to accept contactless, but consumer demand will. I don't know what the breaking point is, but I suspect it's between 50 to 70% of consumer usage. Right now it's at 35%. There are 13 Major Retailers in the US that haven't enabled it yet. Wal-Mart, Lowes, Home Depot, most Kroger stores, Hobby Lobby, HEB, Menards, Fleet Farm, Winco, Graybar, Guitar Center, Paper Source, and Restoration Hardware.
This year we know that Lowes and HEB will be adding it, and so will the rest of Kroger locations most likely. When that happens, the acceptance rate should be close to 93%. Add Home Dept and Menards, and it will be about 95%. At that point, Wal-mart becomes the only Retailer in the top 25 that doesn't accept it, and that will put some pressure on it.
I suspect this will happen sometime by about 2025 or 2026.
Someone reported on Twitter that AMC theaters has enabled contactless at the concession stand.
This year we know that Lowes and HEB will be adding it, and so will the rest of Kroger locations most likely. When that happens, the acceptance rate should be close to 93%. Add Home Dept and Menards, and it will be about 95%. At that point, Wal-mart becomes the only Retailer in the top 25 that doesn't accept it, and that will put some pressure on it.
I suspect this will happen sometime by about 2025 or 2026.
Someone reported on Twitter that AMC theaters has enabled contactless at the concession stand.
My HSA card still doesn't have a chip, for example. And it was just recently replaced, too.
Also, gift cards generally are magstripe only.
Do you still have to sign the receipt when purchasing things with it then? I haven't had a bank card without a chip for probably 15 years I don't think.