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Comment by Nursie | Hacker News Reader

> Alternatively, I can fiddle with my phone, get it to recognize me, hope it works, etc. which--even if it doesn't always take longer--is certainly less deterministic while the person behind me is probably going through their own version of the internal sigh I have when the person in front of me is fiddling with some non-routine payment method.

I don't recognise this at all.

Pull phone out of pocket, touch the fingerprint reader to unlock it, wave it at the reader.

Done.

That's quicker than getting my card out of my wallet, let alone swiping and then signing something.

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Pull phone out of pocket, touch the reader, nothing happens.

Theory 1: I’m not touching the reader in the right place. Maybe the sensor is on this side or that. Try hovering the phone all over the POS box.

Theory 2: Maybe my phone is not working. Try waving it around again while cashier has this “get your shit together” look on his face. Pull out CC.

Theory 3: The reader supports NFC but not ApplePay, so now I’ve wasted my time. Pull out CC.

Theory 4: Its not even a NFC reader (because there seems to be no standard way of telling by just looking at them). So, now I’ve wasted my time. Pull out CC.

Or the arbitrary transaction limit is set to less than the amount I owe.

At least domestically, I find credit cards almost always straightforward while Apple Pay is hit or miss having the line behind me giving me dirty looks because the entitled tech shit is holding up checkout playing with their gadget.

Never had any of this happen, it's quicker and easier than even using contactless credit cards for me. And it's becoming really commonplace in the UK.

1) You've never unlocked your phone before? How weird.

2) How broken is your phone? Never had this issue (I use android pay multiple times per day)

3) This is unusual, to the point of not being a thing here - Applepay is compatible with contactless EMV, as is Android Pay and there's basically nothing to be done at the merchant end to support it.

4) Of course there's a way to tell, they all have the four lights at the top, either physically or on-screen, plus there's the contactless logo the display on-screen.

These imagined impediments are hilarious though, you should have a sketch show.

I use android pay when it's available in the US, but the first time you encounter any specific reader, there's a learning curve. By "reader", it should be obvious we mean the reader that is in the store that you tap your phone or slide your card into, not the fingerprint reader on your phone.

Most of them look like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_terminal#/media/File:P... and will occasionally have a contactless payment icon or an apple/android pay logo on the screen when you walk up to it. In the case of this card reader, the NFC point is at the bottom of the screen and you basically have to rub your phone on the screen to get it to read.

Sometimes they look like this one: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeepersmedia/14128014654 but that big pad at the top is a lie - those have never actually worked and if there's not a sign on it, the cashier will tell you it's "broken".

The rest of them look like this: https://twitter.com/dionlisle/status/768124197549723648 and there's no clear indication or consistency where the NFC contact point is, or it is also a lie and you shouldn't even bother.

I'd say about half of my credit card transactions these days involve me handing a card to someone who swipes it directly into the register - there's no way to possibly use NFC or enter a PIN for debit/etc.

The readers should all have the four lights, like your middle link. Either physical LEDs or on-screen graphics, and that's where you aim.

That last Ingenico is, IMHO, very poorly designed as it hides them.

In the UK (for instance) they almost all look like this one with virtual LEDs on screen -

https://metrouk2.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/ad_214433704.jp...

or this -

https://cdn.barcodesinc.com/images/models/lg/Ingenico/ipp320...

The NFC area is consistently at the top, and is consistently visible. If the standards aren't being followed in the US reader market then clearly that's not going to help anyone, but it's just more evidence that the US credit card technology market is outdated and a very weird outlier.

Don’t know what else to say besides “Come on over to the US and see for yourself.” We are in the stone age when it comes to payment processing.

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