CVS and Rite Aid Disable Apple Pay

[Alpha8472]

CVS, Rite Aid, and Best Buy have disabled Apple Pay. I tried to use my non-Apple Pay swipe-less credit card at CVS the other day and it also did not work. Apparently, in a show of solidarity CVS and several other chains disabled their swipe-less feature for credit cards.

Why did they do this? Apparently, Apple Pay and the similar Google Wallet swipeless system charges a credit card fee to merchants. All credit cards charge the merchant a fee. However, CVS, Rite Aid and other stores are invested in another mobile phone payment system called CurrentC. This CurrentC system doesn't charge the merchant fee and is cheaper for merchants. The payments are deducted from a customer's checking account.

People are upset over this. However, what people don't realize is that the evil villain here is not CVS or Rite Aid. It is the greedy corrupt banks and the credit card companies. Banks and credit card companies charge fees every single time you use a credit card. These fees add up and it raises prices for everyone.

Merchants are taking a stand and saying we don't want banks to keep ripping off everyone and causing prices to go up.

CurrentC will allow people to pay with their mobile phones and it won't have a credit card fee. This could lead to lower prices and keep prices from going sky high from the fees charged by banks.

I don't care if Apple Pay is allowed or not allowed at stores. People can still swipe a credit card. Have people forgotten how to do that? Do you really want all of your credit cards stored on your phone so that someone can come along and steal it? There is also Google Wallet which has been out for years where you pay with your phone. Virtually no one uses it. People do not yet trust this mobile payment technology. There have been so many breaches that it is only a matter of time before all your credit cards are stolen online.

I also hate those credit cards with the swipe-less feature. I had 2 of them and my credit company would not get rid of it. Anyone with a scanner could run up and steal your credit card information by scanning the credit card at close range through the air. It is not secure at all.

Google Wallet, PayWave, PayPass, have been out for years and they all failed to get customers to adopt it. People still can still swipe their credit cards and merchants hated having to install expensive swipe less credit card readers.

[storewanderer]

I think it is a poor decision to discontinue the NFC. But that is just my opinion. Given that CurrentC got hacked I would not be too interested in using them.

In Canada and Asia the NFC terminals are very common. I am not sure what the issue in the US is.

[Alpha8472]

I would support Apple Pay if Apple Pay could deduct the purchase from my checking account. There are no fees charged when money is deducted from your checking account. The fees charged by credit cards are absurd. Credit Card fees are increasing the prices of merchandise and services. If we could just get rid of the greedy banks and credit card companies that are charging these fees, we could see lower prices. Stores and restaurants pass on the credit card fees to customers in the form of higher prices.

Somehow, Apple Pay should find a secure way to integrate Apple Pay with checking accounts so that they can bypass the fees charged by credit card companies and banks.

NFC is not the issue, but credit card fees. If Apple Pay can run using checking accounts, Rite Aid and CVS would surely turn their NFC readers back on again. Those NFC readers are already installed. Rite Aid and CVS want to dump credit card fees.

Apple, if you are listening this is an idea that will make Apple Pay return back to those merchants that just dumped you.