Clearing Up Mobile Payment Confusion
Forget what you’ve heard; it’s all the same.
Jun 04, 2019
ALEXANDRIA, Va.—There’s still no such thing as a merchant taking or blocking only Apple Pay or only Google Pay. Apple Pay and Google Pay are just specific brand names for NFC (near field communication) wireless payments, and a retailer can’t accept only one or block only the other, according to a story in USA Today.
Contrary to what is suggested in corporate blogs and technology news reports, a merchant can accept NFC payments from every device, including Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, some smartwatches and some newer credit cards that embed their own NFC circuitry—or block all of them.
For an NFC-capable card reader, each of those payment methods looks the same. For the customer, the benefits also are about the same: a faster transaction that offers better security than standard-issue credit cards.
Some retailers may perceive Apple Pay as different from other NFC systems due to Apple’s attempts to keep its customers’ purchase details private, and Apple has been happy to emphasize that privacy advantage.
Perhaps the confusion about mobile payment options has kept some consumers from using those apps. Currently, 39% of consumers say they use contactless payments when shopping.
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