Digital Wallets Have Yet To Catch On, JPMorgan Executive Says (reuters.com)

Despite major tech companies working aggressively on making digital wallet solutions available everywhere, these digital payment apps in our smartphones are yet to gain traction, according to Chief Executive of Consumer Banking JP Morgan Chase & Co. From a Reuters report: Apple Pay, Android Pay, and Samsung Pay are being used for less than 1 percent of payments at retailers, Gordon Smith said, citing industry data at an investor conference. Ultimately, the convenience of paying with phones will bring a surge of use from consumers, but it is impossible to know when that inflexion point will be reached, said Smith.

Comments

Because there's no advantage

[AuMatar]

I don't go out and about without my wallet, so my credit card is always on me. Using an app isn't any more convenient, its less so. And I have to figure out the risks and insecurities of a new method of payment. I'll just keep swiping my credit card instead, thanks.

I mean really- who the hell really thinks taking out your phone, unlocking it, moving it over a sensor, and typing your pin into an app is more convenient then taking a card from your wallet and making one swipe?

Re:Because there's no advantage

[geek]

I don't go out and about without my wallet, so my credit card is always on me. Using an app isn't any more convenient, its less so.

It's not about convenience. It's about security. The apps are far superior from a security perspective. Leave your card locked up at home so no one gets it when they steal your wallet.

Re:Because there's no advantage

[DutchSter]

It's not about convenience. It's about security. The apps are far superior from a security perspective. Leave your card locked up at home so no one gets it when they steal your wallet.

Whose security exactly? Certainly not mine. If my wallet is stolen and I make timely reports my liability for any fraud on my credit cards is exactly zero. I have three credit cards but only ever carry two. Even if those two get shut down for a week while I await replacements I've got my third one at home.

One of my cards was tied up in the Target breach and even though I'd never had a balance higher than $1,000 on a $10,000 limit Bank of America let some fraudsters exceed my limit by over $15,000 making multiple purchases of $2,000 worth of gift cards within minutes of each other at a Sams Club before calling me to verify the activity. About a week later I got new cards in the mail along with an affidavit to sign which I gladly did. I was surprised to see that in the end when they reversed the $25,000 in charges they didn't bother to reverse the 2% cash back I earned on those purchases. I called three times asking them to adjust that as well. Finally after letting the credits sit on my account for six months with no reversal I said fuck it and spent the $500. I'm still a customer and never heard another word.

I don't care if my phone would be more secure because at the micro level it doesn't affect me one bit. One might say that we all pay higher costs because of fraud and while that's true if all fraud went away tomorrow the consumers would never see a dime. When the big bad banks had their debit card interchange fees significantly curtailed we were all told how great it was for the consumer. I didn't see a single price drop anywhere. I did, however, see CEOs of big retailers celebrating their increased profitability to shareholders specifically citing reduced expenses in the transaction processing category. So basically instead of one asshole group of companies exploiting consumers we just shifted it to another while patting ourselves on the back for doing something good for the little guy.

What's needed is universality

[presidenteloco]

The end user wants a single system that will work at most of the places they buy things at, regardless of whether they switch back and forth from iPhone to Android, and regardless of which bank and credit card they have.

Until the various industry players swallow their greed and agree to get together in a strong standards definition and implementation process and revenue sharing process that gives users this kind of universality, the momentum will continue to stall.

I've got 2 problems with a digital wallet

[Snotnose]

First, I don't trust the security of the phone. There is nothing on my phone that I would care about if a hacker got it. No logins, no passwords, no addresses. Just a couple apps and several phone numbers.

Second, I don't see why I should give big companies yet another chance to mine my data. Especially something as sensitive as my spending habits. I still use cash a lot for this very reason, every year my credit card company sends me a statement showing me exactly how closely they track my spending.

Because it's unnecessarily complex

[QuasiEvil]

I fail to understand why I'd want to pay with my phone.
A) Cash never runs out of battery, and the merchant can always verify it's valid without a network connection
B) Credit cards never run out of battery, and there's a backup process for when the terminal can't call home to momma (although imprint machines scare anybody under 30 if they have to use them...)
C) Mobile OSs are subject to security holes that are being actively pursued
D) I have to carry a wallet anyway. Drivers license, health insurance cards, *cash*, etc. So what does it gain me?

Seriously, this is the standard "wouldn't it be cool if your smartphone could..." sort of thinking, without pondering if it's really better to do those things with a smartphone.

Re:That's because the payment terminals are outdat

[cayenne8]

But I have came across people who scold me for using my Phone to Pay, the call me things like a Hipster.

While I have no problem with others that want to pay with their phone, I personally have NO interest in doing it myself.

I don't want any more of my info on my phone than there already is, certainly not my methods and ability to pay.

I prefer to use good old CASH for most of my daily, meatspace transactions. I take out a few hundred each week, and I can easily see what I'm spending in hard currency, rather than lose track easily during the week/month with the abstraction that is credit..

To me, a CC is like a chip in a casino, and it doesn't associate as well with real money spent. I think it is even worse on a phone as that you don't even have go throught the muscle memory action of physically pulling out a card, using it and replacing it in the wallet.

While I have no problem with folks that do wanna use their phone to pay, I can fully understand the myriad of reason one would not like to.

If nothing else, what happens to ones ability to pay if your phone dies?