Big Retailer's New Clunky Attempt To Kill Apple Pay And Credit Card Fees [View all]

[Kablooie]

Apple Pay is a new store payment system available on iPhones that allows you to securely pay at stores by simply holding up your phone near a terminal. Your fingerprint while holding the phone is your personal verification and the store only receives a unique one time code that they use to process the sale. None of your personal info or credit card numbers are transmitted so the possibility of credit card info theft is eliminated.
Android phones that have an NFC (Near Field Communications) chip can also use the terminals by inputting a personal id code.

These terminals are being shut off in Best Buy, Walmart, Lowe's, and many more stores because they are part of a consortium of merchants that are developing their own payment solution known as CurrentC which will be available some time next year.

CurrentC requires you to open a CurrentC app, line up and scan a paycode with your phone's camera then show it to the cashier who scans the paycode from your phone. If the image isn't clear enough you can type in your info instead.

CurrentC is not connected to your credit cards but draws money directly from your bank account thus saving the merchant credit card fees. That's the whole justification for this new awkward system, to eliminate credit card fees.

So a slew of stores, including CVS and Rite-Aid are shutting down their NFC terminals in the hope of preventing Apple Pay from becoming popular and forcing people to use their awkward, less secure but cheaper for the merchant system.

There are rumblings of boycott within the tech community.

More:
http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/25/currentc/