Weeks after CurrentC was delayed (again) and half the team was laid off, the mobile payment that was supposed to serve as a merchant-backed alternative to payment systems from Apple and Android may be over for good. Or at least that’s the impression one might get from an email sent to testers of the system. [More]
currentc
CurrentC Gets Delayed Again, Half Of Team Laid Off
By 5.17.16
Yesterday, Walmart deployed its QR code-based Walmart Pay mobile application in more stores in Arkansas and in stores across Texas. In a piece of news with curious timing, CurrentC, the mobile payment solution that was supposed to serve as a merchant-backed alternative to payment systems from Apple and Android, has been delayed again and the company behind it has laid off half of its employees. [More]
Some Best Buy Stores Now Taking Apple, Android Pay
By 9.18.15
Best Buy continued its love affair with Apple this week, as several locations of the electronics retailer started accepting the tech company’s mobile payment system. Alert consumers began noticing a few days ago that some Best Buy locations now allowed customers to pay with both Apple Pay and Android Pay, just a month after the retailer’s exclusive agreement with MCX – a consortium creating payment platform CurrentC – ended. The retailer announced back in April that it would start offering Apple’s payment option at some point in 2015, but failed to elaborate on a timeline. [Apple Insider] [More]
Rite Aid Changes Its Tune, Will Now Accept Apple Pay
By 8.11.15
In a reversal from its sudden decision in October last year to stop accepting Apple Pay at its stores after just a week of offering that option to shoppers, Rite Aid has announced it’s going back, and will allow it as a form of payment starting Aug. 15. [More]
Apple Pay Unavailable At Home Depot As Retailer Upgrades Payment Terminals
By 5.5.15
Though Home Depot was never officially a partner with Apple’s Apple Pay mobile payment platform, which allows users to pay using credit card information stored their phones, the home improvement chain’s NFC-enabled checkout terminals worked with Apple Pay — until recently, that is. The retailer has begun the process of upgrading its in-store payment system, meaning that Apple Pay and other mobile payment platforms are now unavailable. [More]
Best Buy Changes Mind, Ends Its Ban On Apple Pay
By 4.28.15
When Apple Pay launched last fall, Best Buy was among the most high-profile retailers who refused to accept the new mobile payment platform because of its allegiance to the in-development CurrentC, a competing service from a Walmart-led coalition of retailers. But with CurrentC’s rollout still lingering in the vague future, Best Buy has decided it’s time to give Apple Pay a shot. [More]
Apple Pay Gets More Useful, Coming To 200,000 Vending Machines & Other Self-Serve Devices
By 1.27.15
Apple Pay is not (yet) available at some of the nation’s largest retailers as they prepare to introduce their own mobile payment system, meaning you can’t use it to buy a week’s worth of groceries at Walmart or a TV at Best Buy, or even pay for your prescriptions at CVS and Rite-Aid. But what about those transactions on the opposite end of the spectrum, the ones with dollar values so small that you may feel odd not paying in cash? One company says it will be bringing Apple Pay to hundreds of thousands of vending machines and other self-serve devices. [More]
Square CEO Says Company Will Accept All Forms Of Payment, Even Apple Pay
By 11.21.14
While Walmart and other major retailers are deliberately holding off on accepting Apple Pay because they are developing a competing mobile payment system, there are plenty of small businesses who want to offer Apple Pay but don’t want to invest too much in the equipment required to accept it. The folks at Square, which turns your smartphone into a card reader, hope to remove that roadblock early next year when they start enabling clients to accept Apple Pay. [More]
Walmart-Led Apple Pay Competitor Requires Months Of Exclusive “Breathing Room”
By 11.4.14
Even though it hasn’t launched, mobile payment system CurrentC is already making headlines, and not just for being hacked. It’s also the reason iPhone 6 users can’t use Apple Pay at some of the country’s biggest stores, including Walmart, CVS, and Best Buy. But the CEO of the Walmart-led consortium behind CurrentC says that its backers won’t be blacking out Apple Pay forever. [More]
CurrentC, Walmart-Led Competitor To Apple Pay, Has Already Been Hacked
By 10.29.14
A number of major retailers, most notably Walmart, have yet to allow shoppers to use the recently launched Apple Pay system at checkout, and national drugstore chains Rite-Aid and CVS stopped offering Apple Pay as an option after only a few days. That’s because all of these retailers are part of a consortium working on a competing system called CurrentC, which by the way, has already been hacked. [More]
Why Did CVS & Rite-Aid Stop Taking Apple Pay?
By 10.27.14
After nearly a week of accepting payment via the recently launched Apple Pay system, both CVS and Rite-Aid suddenly stopped offering this option to shoppers over the weekend. And neither retailer is giving a reason why, though it appears to be part of a retail-industry effort to eventually roll out its own payment system. [More]
