Just to clarify, card issuers make money from interest. Card networks, such as Visa and MC, don’t have any direct contact with cardholders (AMEX and Discover are both card issuers and card networks in the USA).
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Ironically, the payment details (the details of a credit card I used back then) were exposed and used – with the breach apparently coming from Home Depot … so I’ve been using only cash with them since. So I had no clue what types of credit card they’ve been accepting nowadays.
I’m generally cautious about where and when I use a credit or debit card; regardless of whether it’s in my iPhone’s wallet or not …
Some advice: when you have a credit/debit card stolen (or detect bogus charges against the card), notify your card issuer ASAP. To minimize the subsequent bogus charges you could be liable for.
If your issuer ends issuing you a new card number, beware of any suspicious automatic payments or subscriptions attached to the compromised card number.
If the thief has managed to stick a bogus subscription onto your account, they will automatically be notified of the newly issued number through the Automatic Billing Update (ABU) program. [They will notified even before you receive any new plastic.] …
Unless you specifically have your issuer block that specific merchant from using ABU to get your new card number.
Summary: if you detect any unauthorized charges, tell your issuer ASAP. Have them reverse any bogus charges. And if necessary, have them cancel your old card and issue you a new card number – and ask them to check for and block any suspicous ABU merchants.
This is one of the biggest advantages of Apple Pay — the vendor doesn’t actually get your card number, just a single-use number, so you no longer have to worry about them letting that info out into the world.
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I don’t think it’s a single-use number. But it’s different than the one on your card, and it’s unique to each device.
It’s not a single-use number in the sense of a temporary credit card number, but my understanding (read back when Apple Pay first came out) is that it is a special number that can only be used that one transaction with that merchant. So even if someone (like an employee of that merchant or a hacker) was to record that number, it wouldn’t do them any good. It can’t be reused with that merchant or with anyone else.
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Apparently the credit/debit card number that Apple Pay sends to the merchant is different from the number on the card itself and specific to the Device, not the transaction. It’s the security code that is transaction-specific:
After the user authenticates, the Device Account Number and a transaction-specific dynamic security code are used when processing the payment. Neither Apple nor a user’s device sends the full credit or debit card numbers to merchants.
Source:
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I remember when Visa’s intercharge fees were higher than MasterCard and that was one of the reasons I preferred MasterCard. Unfortunately my credit union decided to issue only Visa cards and forced me to change. My MasterCard was the oldest card on my credit reports so I initially suffered from a reduced rating. After complaining enough, my credit union back dated the credt start date to when my MasterCard had been initially issued back in the 80s.
It has, actually. It’s ubiquitous in Italy for both debit and credit cards.
And I’ve found numerous U.S. merchants who are convinced that ApplePay doesn’t work…until I use it successfully. Cha-ching!
The Apple Card fails to support 3D Secure (also known as “3DS,” “MasterCard Identity Check,” and “SecureCode,” or the Visa equivalent “Verified by Visa”) which is prevalent in Europe. “When you make a payment online, your bank may ask you to authorize the transaction, usually through a temporary code sent via SMS or through the bank’s app. This decreases the risk that someone might use a card you own without your knowledge.”
If the merchant’s network requires its use, then you won’t be able to use the Apple Card. Their Goldman Sachs customer service is clueless about it.
But it is nice that the Apple Card has a “rotating” security code (CVV, enabled by the “Advanced Fraud Protection” option) which pretty much makes it impossible for someone with the card number to use it. Mind-bogglingly, it’s not enabled by default!
Soooo annoying. I lament it every single time I go which is often.
Simon was saying that Apple Card hasn’t made it beyond the U.S. yet, and he is right. So while debit and credit cards issued by Italian banks may support Apple Pay, Apple Card has never been offered to customers outside the U.S.
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I curse Michaels! I don’t go there often but it tends to be a spur of the moment thing and nine times out of 10 I don’t have a card with me. Home Depot I usually plan for.
Family Dollar doesn’t take it either but I suspect that’s a specific store issue because they did until about a year ago when a handwritten sign got taped to the front door saying the machine for Apple Pay was “broken”. I curse them too - bad enough I have to carefully plan my visits there but now I have to remember to dig out my card.
Diane
If we can curse all the non-compliant businesses, then that could serve as an incentive for others to comply. Nothing quite like evil incantations to guide marketplace adoption. I’m all in!
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The situation in Australia per the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA):
The goal of the RBA’s surcharging standard is to improve price signals to consumers about the relative costs of different payment methods. Excessive surcharging diminishes the effectiveness of these price signals. The standard helps eliminate instances of excessive surcharging through transparency and enforcement. Merchants must be provided with easy-to-understand information about their costs of card acceptance, which will enable them to make informed decisions about whether to accept higher-cost payment methods and, if they do, whether to surcharge them. Where merchants do decide to impose surcharges, consumers can be confident that these represent the actual costs to the merchant. Consumers can make a complaint to the ACCC if they consider that a surcharge is excessive.
Merchants remain subject to all the obligations under the Australian Consumer Law.
I am currently outside the USA and around here, nearly every credit card issued locally can be used with the contact-free (NFC) credit card readers to pay for stuff.
Debit cards also can be used the same way.
But if you want to pay with a phone, then you have to use a QR code basis app to authorize the payment. No local credit card can be loaded into Apple Pay.
I use the wallet app to charge contact-free any purchase I want to my credit card in Apple’s Wallet. Most cashiers have not seen this before and they assume that I am going the QR code route. But when I tell them that I am going to pay “contact-free” they disbelieve.
A recent company spent 40 minutes telling me their system would not work with my phone. Finally I just asked them if I could try. They relented. The charge went through. They were speechless. (I was amazed how silent they all suddenly became.)
I had written a long piece on the assumption that someone was going to ask if I am getting killed by credit card fees.
I decided not to post that. Just let it be known that I am happy with the costs I am experiencing.
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This is solely a matter of Apple making agreements with your country’s banking regulators and the banks themselves. You can load cards in many countries, but apparently not where you are.
But I also learned that if you have your card loaded into ApplePay, it will work with contactless readers, even in countries where the local banks aren’t offering support. Several years ago, while on a vacation to Italy (before ApplePay was available in Italy), I had no problem tapping my phone to pay at restaurants. I had to explain to the waiter what I wanted to do so he could start the transaction process, but after that it just worked.
I mostly use my Apple Watch linked to my bank’s credit card for transactions in Australia. A few years ago I started using it on trips to Japan and many retailers there were surprised when it worked.
Not having to take my wallet or iPhone out to complete a transaction is a huge security benefit in some locations.
I do not use Apple Pay with my watch but sometimes use Apple Pay when purchasing online. However, I prefer Paypal for online purchases (starting a whole new discussion?
).
Anyway, the comments above about some retailers not using NFC terminals are useful for trips to USA.
Yes. While NFC terminals are common, they are not universal.
Chip readers are almost universal, but there are still some stores that require a mag-stripe. Which still surprises me, given how insecure that mechanism is.
These statements seem contradictory to me. How can you use your watch to pay and it not be Pay? Isn’t Pay the only way to pay via the watch?
I would be interested in learning more about your reasoning. I find PayPal to be 10x more complicated and clumsy than Pay for online purchases. For Pay, I love that I don’t need an account with the website, and I don’t even have to give them my address or email or any information – that’s all given to them automatically when I pay via Pay. Literally just a fingerprint scan and I’m done.
PayPal requires logging into it, approving the purchase, and is a lot more steps.
At this point, any (US?) merchant still using mag stripes is now bearing full liability for any fraudulent transactions processed through them.
The local performing arts theatre here still uses swipe readers. I guess they figure the number of criminals who would clone credit cards so they can go to see a local play is pretty small. In any event, they must not have seen enough fraud there to justify new readers yet.
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