If you’ve ever made a contactless credit card payment in a retail store, you’ve likely run into a VeriFone NFC-terminal: recent estimates put it at approximately 60% global market share for EMV payment terminals, for example. Today, the company is launching a new campaign along with payment processing company Vantiv that encourages Verifone’s massive network of clients to upgrade their terminals and get ready for Apple Pay:
“The inclusion of NFC technology in iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus is a big step forward for the use of smart devices in commerce,” said Shan Ethridge, vice president and general manager, North America Financial Services Group, VeriFone… Together with Vantiv, we can ensure merchants have the platform they need for both EMV card payments and secure, NFC-based commerce. This competitive offering will unlock the potential for exciting new experiences between merchants and consumers.”
Since Apple first launched the Apple Pay service in the US earlier this month, it’s been working to roll out support for additional banks and cards types. The other piece of the puzzle is support from merchants and payment processing companies, some of which have decided to disable support for Apple Pay on NFC terminals in order to push a competitive service. While some supported NFC terminals abroad are capable of accepting Apple Pay payments, users are currently only able to load US-based cards.
On that note, Verifone points out that all of its NFC-enabled VeriFone terminals are capable of supporting Apple Pay, but it’s also introducing and advertising a new NFC-ready VX 520 terminal as part of the campaign for retailers that decide to upgrade their terminals.
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Vote with your dollars people. Switch to Wallgreens and verbally tell managers at the opposition why you’re switching. Tell them you and your friends will all be switching.
Here is where you can tell CVS: http://www.cvs.com/help/email-customer-relations.jsp?callType=store&topicid=200018
What does an NFC equipped Verifone reader look like? In the last few days I’ve shopped at a few places like Lowes that have Verifone readers, but none of them gave any visual indication that they accepted NFC payments.
Many terminals don’t have a visual clue. Some have PayPass/paywave logos and that means that NFC is there.
Of course, Lowe’s is part of MCX and perhaps has deactivated the NFC capability, as CVS and Rite-Aid have done. Maybe – I don’t know.
All the handheld pay stations that the Apple employees use in the store are Verifone branded
Yep merchants need to switch to NFC and NOW!
Odds are that CVS and Rite Aid have been planning this move for years and I’d hardly think they’re going to quickly change their minds after whatever investments they’ve made to go with CurrentC. Maybe they’ll consider it a year from now if it does cause them to lose customers in significant enough numbers. It’s a pretty bold move to go up against Apple and Android. It doesn’t seem like they’d stand a chance of winning.
If “CVS and Rite Aid had been planning this move for years,” as you’ve stated, why did they disable the NFC capability of their readers AFTER Apple Pay had been successfully used at their registers?
Apparently the Easypay devices at the Apple retail store uses VeriFone too (there were references in a plist file inside the EasyPay app).
wow this sure was a fad that fazed out