There are no separate fees for contactless. In fact Walmart Pay costs them more money since it runs as card not present, vs. Apple Pay which runs as Card Present. They rather have it be costing them more money so they can mine that sweet data.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Walmart Stands Firm on Why It Doesn't Accept Apple Pay in the U.S.
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
They might have admitted it. If retail is like my industry, then the financial analysts covering it will have been briefed on this strategy long ago. And if those briefings were under NDA, then the trade and business press wouldn't know about the strategy because the analysts couldn't discuss it in interviews.
That's what I think, too. It would be interesting to see if some really influential business blogger is willing to reveal this; you know the likes of CNBC, Fox Business and Bloomberg will never openly discuss this.
MERCHANTS ACCEPTING APPLE PAY AND GOOGLE PAY DO NOT PAY ANY SERVICE CHARGES TO APPLE OR GOOGLE NOR DO THEY PAY EXTRA FOR CONTACTLESS. Please, people, stop spreading that myth. Whatever the reason is why walmart doesn’t want to accept contactless, apple pay and google pay, it’s not to save on fees because they’re not saving at all as long as they take visa, mastercard, etc. In fact, walmart pay is what costs them extra since banks do charge more for card not present transactions. Only if they went cash-only we would be sure that they did it to save on card fees.
Last edited:
That is true for most retailers. However, Wal-mart is big enough that they may have negotiated a special deal with the card processor and maybe that processor does charge more for contactless. In fact, I'm surprised Wal_mart has not created their own processing network so they could save on fees.
Essentially, Walmart is so huge that they could pretty much go their own way in terms of credit card and debit card processing. That's probably the only reason why they could get away with using Walmart Pay under the Walmart app for iOS (iPhone) and Android.
You should look more into the banking regulators before you come to your conclusion that banks aren't willing.
Publications on Banking regulation
European banking supervisors contribute to keeping the banking system safe and sound. European banking supervision comprises the ECB and national supervisors of the participating countries.
Even if the processor charged a bit more for contactless it will always be less than what they charge for card not present transactions due to the higher fraud risk of the latter, meaning walmart pay still incurs an even higher fee than contactless, so the argument that walmart is saving money by turning off contactless makes no sense and has no logical basis. Stop spreading that myth.
I didn’t mean to say they aren’t willing at all, I meant that they may be a bit less willing seeing that in the US Goldman Sachs lost a lot money on the Apple Card deal.You should look more into the banking regulators before you come to your conclusion that banks aren't willing.
Publications on Banking regulation
European banking supervisors contribute to keeping the banking system safe and sound. European banking supervision comprises the ECB and national supervisors of the participating countries.www.bankingsupervision.europa.eu
But would their payment processor be willing to go so far as to charge a lower fee for a riskier online card not present transaction (as in walmart pay) than for a contactless card present transaction? I mean usually the higher the fraud risk the more they charge for processing, not the other way around.
The planning and preparation of such things takes years. At the time, they didn't know that Goldman would make losses. Such considerations were therefore not initially the brake on the system.
But they may well be at this point. I’m talking about the present, not the past.
This is true at Amazon Go stores but not in Whole Foods. At Whole Foods you scan with this giant robot-like cart. If you grab and go at Whole Foods you’ll be grabbed by the police.