QFC Enables NFC Contactless Payment At Checkout

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Alpha8472
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QFC Enables NFC Contactless Payment At Checkout

Post by Alpha8472 »

https://www.supermarketnews.com/retail- ... technology

Kroger's QFC chain enables NFC contactless payment at checkouts. This means that Apple Pay, Google Pay, NFC credit and debit cards will be accepted as payment options. This is a first for a Kroger chain. If a credit card is used via swipe, chip card reader, or NFC the credit card fee charged to the retailer is the same. If the credit card is used via a store's mobile app, then the fee would be higher. Perhaps Kroger has finally realized that they can save money by enabling NFC at the checkout.

I have used NFC at other supermarket chains for years. I remember using NFC credit and debit cards going back at least 9 years at Rite Aid.

I was at Safeway about a week ago at the self checkout and I did not realize how sensitive those NFC readers were. My credit card was not even near the credit card reader and the machine already had charged my card. The machine started playing a song, and I was wondering what is that noise. I am now paranoid of walking by someone else's self checkout machine for fear of it charging my credit card.
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Re: QFC Enables NFC Contactless Payment At Checkout

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: August 7th, 2020, 3:23 am

I was at Safeway about a week ago at the self checkout and I did not realize how sensitive those NFC readers were. My credit card was not even near the credit card reader and the machine already had charged my card. The machine started playing a song, and I was wondering what is that noise. I am now paranoid of walking by someone else's self checkout machine for fear of it charging my credit card.
The reader shouldn't be that sensitive but sometimes the readers get configured incorrectly. Usually I have to hold my card within about a centimeter of the reader for it to pick up the tap. Once in a while I will come across a reader that has a far range like within an inch of the reader but that is pretty rare.

Lately as Safeway in my area has plastic wrap over its pinpads (I am very concerned this is the same plastic wrap that was there about 4 months ago it is so dirty and foggy) I find the plastic wrap interferes with the tap and I have to hold the card so it is almost touching the plastic wrap (really do not want to have that happen). I also learned you can use the red X button to bypass their donation prompt so you do not have to touch the screen.

When paying with my phone I notice I do not have to hold it as close to the screen. I think the phone sends a stronger NFC signal to the pinpad than the card sends.
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Re: QFC Enables NFC Contactless Payment At Checkout

Post by Brian Lutz »

If QFC is doing it, it seems likely that Fred Meyer will be enabling it soon as well.

I use Samsung pay from my phone at most places that support it, and in general it works well (even in magnetic stripe mode with the existing readers in Kroger stores here) but there are some exceptions. The newer readers in Home Depot stores just return a "This card is not supported" error, and I have also seen places where using an NFC card would put the reader in a bad state or even outright crash it (eventually fixed.) I've also seen some places (notably Daiso) that have explicit "No NFC or application payments allowed" signs on their readers, although I'm not sure why because I used to be able to use Samsung Pay there with no issues.

One advantage of the apps over physical cards is that when the NFC signal gets sent to the reader they can detect that it was received and immediately stop transmitting.
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