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]
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CurrentC Gets Delayed Again, Half Of Team Laid Off
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]
Rite Aid Changes Its Tune, Will Now Accept Apple Pay
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
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]
Apple Pay Gets More Useful, Coming To 200,000 Vending Machines & Other Self-Serve Devices
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]
Walmart-Led Apple Pay Competitor Requires Months Of Exclusive “Breathing Room”
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
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?
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]