Today's activity was the DuPage Children's Museum in downtown Naperville, IL. Being the last weekend before school starts it was, quite naturally, crowded. Not Disneyland style crowded but the parking lot was completely full by mid-morning. This was just an animated sculpture outside the door with moving parts and lots of clanking sounds. After a light lunch, I opted to simply sit in the car and rest rather than battle the multiple birthday parties going on inside of the museum. It was a very nice museum with almost everything interactive.
The weather has been beautiful the last couple of days with sparkling blue skies though the light wind makes it feel colder than the thermometer says. I didn't bring any cold weather gear (coat, gloves, hat) with me on this trip so I haven't spent much time outdoors. Even though it was only in the 20s and 30s (°F), the wind and humidity made it feel really cold. After the museum, we stopped at a Trader Joe's to pick up some snacks for the flight back tomorrow. Trader Joe's and Whole Foods both accept NFC payments. I had used Google Wallet now known as Android Pay last year with my Nexus 4 and the only problem was that it needed Internet access when being used and the GCI partner is T-Mobile. Horrible coverage in San Francisco limited it's use.
On this trip I have been using either my Google Wallet card or Apple Pay with my iPhone (AT&T). Using Apple Pay is so quick and simple with the fingerprint reader. Simply double tap the home button with the correct finger and put the back of the phone near the terminal. When the payment is completed, the phone sort of "clicks". That's it. Since the Nexus 4 has no fingerprint reader you had to enter your 4 digit pin when paying. Not quite as convenient. In all cases, I get a notification on the phone very shortly after any transaction. With the Google Wallet card, it's usually within a minute. Apple Pay uses one-time card numbers for each transaction so the vendor never receives your actual card number. Android Pay may work the same way but I haven't heard very many details. I don't know anything about Samsung Pay as I don't have a Samsung phone.
Posted with Blogsy
We would go to a restaurant, pay for our bill with our credit card, and get confirmation back on the phone before the final check would return to us at the table. Pretty cool.
ReplyDeleteI say the revolution is on paper. I still use checks quite a bit and happily no one fumes about those of us who dare. Whole Foods doesn't even accept checks which says A LOT about the bulk of their clientele, but we won't go into that. I suppose check writers are to be tolerated as most of "us" are "older people".
ReplyDeleteI understand the allure of getting in and getting out and getting on with it, but I prefer the effort of slowing some things down. All of this just confirms we are steamrolling into a more robotic future, less human interaction.
I like that the vendor never sees or has any kind of account information. The number that they receive is a one-time use number that can't be replayed. Plus, the vendor has no information to track your purchases. This is much more significant to me than any speed or convenience issue.
DeleteI think I've written 20 checks in the last ten years.
You are so tech advanced. I am still using debit cards but at least they have a chip in them now.
ReplyDeleteOur weather has been in the 20's and 30's as well but our humidity is around 60-70% so it seems damn cold. Little snow on the ground this morning too.
That's been colder than Alaska for the last week. Snow on the ground, eh? Not very fun…
DeleteThere are some real consumer issues associated with banks, debit and credit cards, chipped cards, etc. From what I've gathered, credit cards have been required to provided fraud protection. That protection is missing with debit cards. I've read that banks are no longer required to provide the protection with chipped credit cards. That was one of the incentives offered them to spend the extra money on the new infrastructure. After all, they lose a pile of money when they delete fraudulent charges from your account. I've yet to get a definitive answer from any bank.
The chipped cards seemed more secure if the bank would allow you to embed a pin in the card but U.S. banks don't seem inclined to support this. But then again, I read that hackers have already figured out how to circumvent the chip.
Fun times…
Here's an article explaining this more: http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/5572081.
DeleteThe Google Wallet card is a debit card in an account with limited funds. The Apple Pay uses one time numbers and I suspect that both Android Pay and Samsung Pay are similar. All require secondary authentication when used unlike the NFC bank cards in use for years.
I article stated that some U.S. banks will support chip and pin. Chip and signature is only slightly better than the easily copied magstripe on the old bank cards...
Richard I hate being held hostage by hackers.
ReplyDeleteNo disagreement from me there… I had heard on a security report that there was s a hack with the chip cards to ignore the pin but it still requires possession of the card. If this is the case, the pin is the same as a signature. Still an improvement over the last old magstripe.
DeleteI've not tried the NFC payment with my iphone...guess I'm a bit of a luddite.
ReplyDeleteI must admit that NFC was one of the main reasons for upgrades adding for me.
DeleteLooks like a great trip. I have never used Apple Pay before but I recently was hacked last month using my new master card. The card has a chip implanted in it and I thought the security would be a little better now that most credit cards have this new feature. Maybe I'll start using Apple Pay. Thanks for the post.
ReplyDeleteI love, love, love wireless payment.
ReplyDeleteApple pay is not here yet, but our debit and credit cards have RFID and more and more merchants have wireless pay terminals. One tap and you're done. Way more convenient than typing in PINs.
Imagine a world where I no longer need a wallet. I do.
Can't wait.
I heard that ApplePay has arrived in Canada but only using American Express (kind of ironic). I am still not a fan of the card tap as there is no authentication and the vendor still receives the actual card number. It's convenient but if you have physical possession, you can make charges and you are still dependent on all of the individual vendors (like Target and Home Depot) to secure their own point of sale systems. The one-time card numbers can only be used once for that transaction at that vendor and there is no personally identifiable information attached. That's why some vendors such as Walmart and BestBuy don't want to use it. They want to track you...
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