[gorkish]

Alternatively they could just remove the slot and require self-pay terminals to be contactless. It really makes no sense to me why merchants don't already do this proactively; they are well incentivized:

1) Contactless merchant fees are lower than dip or swipe 2) Payment terminals are cheaper 3) Less fraud/shrink

This hunk of plastic from Target is a solution looking for a problem.

[MBCook]

They’re not looking for a problem. The problem exists.

“Just use contactless” doesn’t work in the US.

Just yesterday a friend was commenting that he got a new credit card (old card expired) and the new one still doesn’t have contactless. Seems his bank decided it wasn’t worth it.

But that’s not all. Target gift cards don’t have contactless. Don’t think Visa/MC/AmEx gift cards do either. I bet EBT cards don’t, I think a rule requiring them to have chips was just passed.

I know other countries are ahead of us, and that major banks have been issuing chip cards for a while. But there are still a lot of people that leaves out.

And target wants to sell to them.

[birdman3131]

Walmart still refuses to go contactless because they went in on the QR code in the app. Annoying.

[kotaKat]

That’s because Walmart is using Walmart Pay as a vehicle to track you and your shopping purchases. They can’t track your habits the same way with just a card.

Kroger finally gave up on Kroger Pay if only because they realized customers were still entering their alternate ID/phone number during checkout so they could still link your data together.

The funny part is Walmart in Canada fully allows contactless… almost as if they don’t care they aren’t getting that customer data up there.

[monkeywork]

>The funny part is Walmart in Canada fully allows contactless… almost as if they don’t care they aren’t getting that customer data up there.

No it's because our banking system is dramatically different in Canada and the expectations of the average shopper and the POS options available to them here are all working to force that issue.

Canada had chip and pin and contactless LONG LONG before the US did - and it's easier for us to make these pivots and changes due to fewer banks and pre-defined co-operation agreements.

[MBCook]

I remember Home Depot had contactless off for a long time and I think Target too?

None of them wanted Apple Pay/Google Pay/Samsung Pay to succeed. They wanted their own thing to get out from having to pay credit card fees.

Weren’t they all members of that ridiculous CurrenC project that completely flopped?

[birdman3131]

They still track it a fair bit. For example. Put a card in the walmart app and after a bit of time all your past purchases will show up in your history.

[Terr_]

I was unpleasantly surprised by that last week, where I had left my wallet in the car (an unusual event) and couldn't pay by tap my phone.

[gorkish]

I was suggesting "Just use contactless" for customer accessible payment terminals. Want to use something less secure and more likely to result in fraud? You can hand your card to the cashier or walk inside instead of paying at the pump, just like you do with any non-card payment already.

The EBT, gift card, and lazy small banks would get their act together pretty damn quick, I'd wager.

[MBCook]

“Sorry. I know you’re on assistance because you can’t afford food, but for your security we’re not going to let you buy food with your government benefits as you may become a scam victim.

Come back when your state government decides to pay to re-issue every card with better technology.”

That’s cruel. The move to EMV was only recently mandated for EBT (if I remember correctly and it was done at all) because so many people were having their benefits stolen by mag stripe skimmers.

You can’t use a stick against powerless people to affect change. It just makes them suffer.

Even if Target did mandate contactless, the stock would plummet on news of all the lost sales and the CEO would be out. The new one would reverse it immediately.

[gorkish]

Where did I suggest this? The customer payment terminal is not the register. Both have card readers; one is fantastically less likely to be tampered with than the other. There is absolutely nothing wrong with putting your cashier in between the customer and a potentially fraudulent payment. What happens when that person gets their EBT account drained by a criminal because of a skimmer? I'm not trying to marginalize anyone; get real.

[strictnein]

> This hunk of plastic from Target is a solution looking for a problem

When you're dealing with tens of thousands of terminals that you want to check on a regular basis across thousands of stores, having a device that verifies things quickly is a solution to a real problem.

[crote]

Ironically, contactless has been the source of new types of skimmer attacks. A skimmer could just add an nfc coil and wouldn't even need to physically touch the card anymore.

[gorkish]

Yes by all means, let's use the threat of a possible attack on EMV to continue to prop up the magstrip and completely disregard that pretty much all of the successful attacks against chip or contactless involve legacy magstrip emulation. If it's good enough for Granddad, it's good enough for me!

[adhesive_wombat]

Welcome to the Internet. If your comment doesn't propose something that is mathematically proven to be perfect under all circumstances and for all people, past, present, future and hypothetical, then it's junk and you're an idiot for mentioning it.