Don's Home Technology Mobile Payments

Under Construction.

Credit Cards, Credit Cards? We don't need no stinking credit cards.

As of the summer of 2012 there were several competing technologies to make purchases at brick and mortar stores with your phone or tablet beginning to roll out. Gartner Inc said mobile-payment transactions will likely surge to an estimated $600 billion world-wide by 2016, up from $172 billion in 2012.

Services:

Unfortunately, adoption rate for Google Wallet and other mobile payment systems, such as the unfortunately named Isis Wallet now called Soft Card, are dismal, with no one but the small percentage of technology enthusiasts using Google Wallet to pay for their purchases. But considering Apple's influence and track record in changing consumer behavior, Apple Pay could finally make secure mobile payments more mainstream.

Things seem to be heating up as Square and others try to get a foot in the market.
NFC was included in the iPhone 6, and the Google's Nexus 7 tablet.

Bad user interfaces:
I was frustrated with bad user interfaces on both Square and Google Wallet.
When I tried to use the wallet and there was not enough money it just beeped with no explanation.
I added an new credit card from my laptop, but couldn't put money into the prepaid Google card from there or specify that it use that card nor did it show me the balance.
I went into the wallet app on my tablet and I had to enter the card all over again.

After I found a store the first screen on square has a get started button, so I went there. What it really means is create a new account, doesn't it know I already have an account?
I went thru the procedures to create a tab at the store, but they couldn't figure out how to use it. I stead of a popup saying you have a new square payment customer they had to click somewhere on the screen to see me. It took 5 minutes just before I got out my wallet to pay the old way.

Google Wallet - PayPass
It requires a supported phone with a NFC chip.
See Google Wallet on Unsupported Devices - YouTube for how to use unsupported devices with NFC chips.
The relation between Google Wallet and MasterCard PayPass is unclear to me.
MasterCard PayPass started as regular looking credit card with a NFC chip embedded in 2008.

At FAQ - Google Wallet they say, "Currently, you can use Google Wallet in-store anywhere MasterCard® PayPass™ is accepted, at over 140,000 merchants across the United States."
It used to require a CitiBank MasterCard but now supports others.
See Google Wallet Now Works With Multiple Credit Cards - NYTimes.com
But when I went to How it Works In-store - Google Wallet it listed a bunch of major merchants:
SingleTap™ merchants: Macy's, Bambergers, Old Navy, OfficeMax, Jamba Juice, DUANEreade, ...
Tap and Pay merchants: CVS, RadioShack, Sunoco, Peets Coffee, Sports authority, ...
See Using the Google Wallet Mobile App

The PayPass Locator App showed 7 locations within 4 miles, including, Shop Rite, Quick Chek, Radio Shack, Bloomingdales, McDonalds, Sunoco. All but Sunoco accepted Google Wallet.
Old Navy and Macy's were not on the map, but they had the readers, Home Depot was on the map but did not have readers.
Sunoco only accepts payment at the convenience store, not for gas.

See What is PayPass NFC? | MasterCard®

After you pay once you must reconnect to the network to update the balance in the card before it can be used again.

Their online help gave conditions for adding a card, you must be online, the type of card, ..., but never told how to add it. I was able to add it to the desktop on my Mac, but Google's Nexus 7 tablet with latest version of android had no menu option to add a card.
Apparently the google tablet produced by Nexus with the latest OS (Jelly Bean 4.1) doesn't support this option.

How Square works:
I couldn't find any good descriptions of this, but based on the video at squareup.com it seems it works like this, .
Get the "Pay with Square" app at Google Play or squareup.com
Your GPS transmits your location back to Square which sends you a list of stores supporting square payment in the area. You select the store where you want to make a purchase and click on "Open Tab" to set up an account with them. Square sends your picture to a tablet in the store. The store enters the transaction and you get a receipt on your mobile device with .

As of August 2012 there were 7 places within 10 miles listed on their app.
One was a pizza place which used the Square Card Reader for payment with deliveries, bud no way to use the Pay App in the store.
Another said they had it but didn't know how to use it.

See How do I pay with my name using Square?

Technologies:

Mobile Web - WAP - Wireless Application Protocol - 3G data svc.
This is used for many mobile apps, not just payment apps.
Apps like Amazon Payments, PayPal Mobile Payments, Pay with Square, use it.

Near Field Communications (NFC) seems to be the most promising technology. It uses short range (typically 4 inches) wireless communications between a merchants reader and a NFC enabled mobile device.
It is not new technology, at least Nokia has been active with it since 2004 and there have been several successful triles since then, but in 2012 Technology adoption Cycle" target="_blank">Gartner said wide adoption of NFC was still 2 to 5 years away.
Apps like Google Wallet, MCX
See NFC here.

Security:
Square's card reader is not quite PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) compliant. (See MerchantDoctor.net who is selling a competing product.)
It uses strong encryption on data transmitted over the network, including SSL and PGP. Its cryptographic keys are at least 2048 bits in length. Card numbers, magnetic stripe data, or security codes are not stored on Square client devices. Square follows the guidelines issued by OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project)

Security Risks of Near Field Communication Technology

PayPal SMS Security Key - PayPal

Terms:

Electronic Purse/Electronic Wallet - Online payment methods such as PayPal that can be accessed online or via a smartphone's internet connection.
Digital Wallet / e-Wallet - this holds payment data for the customer that can be used when logging in to websites and saves the user from having to re-enter payment card details, address details and passwords every time they wish to purchase something online. Examples of e-Wallets are Yahoo! Wallet and Google Wallet.
First Data - Electronic transaction processing - point of sales devices MCX - Merchant Customer Exchange
Mobile Purse - This is where the mobile is used for micropayments such as with SMS payments.
NFC - Near Field Communication
TSM - Trusted Service Manager - First Data software for mobile transactions SMS - Short Message Service
WAP - Wireless Application Protocol

Links:
Online Payments
RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) and NFC (Near Field Communication) /a>
Mobile Payment Magazine
Everything you need to know about NFC and mobile payments - CNET
Different Types of Mobile Payments - MobileTransaction.org
  SMS
Mobile payment - Wikipedia
Top iPhone Credit Card Processing Applications
Pay with Square using your mobile phone
8 Awesome Ways to Pay with Your Phone - The Next Web
Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard - Wikipedia
Do you need a mobile wallet?- MSN Money
Google Wallet Now Works With Multiple Credit Cards - NYTimes.com
Google Wallet Demo - YouTube

Return to Networking

last updated 22 Nov 2014