Hacker News Reader

Comment by ceejayoz | Hacker News Reader

> What if you sidestepped all the chip cleverness and just put cameras to capture the name, CC number, expiration and 3 digits?

Apple Cards have just the name on them, which is a nice step in the right direction. (No contactless, though, which is weird.)

View on HN

Apple Cards also have the nice feature that the entire mag-stripe CC number is virtual and different/distinct from the number used by contactless/Apple Pay, the number used by the EMV, and the number given by the App for cases where something requests you manually type in a CC number. Most of those numbers can be changed in the App when needed. So even in the cases where someone skims or leaks an Apple Card CC number you typically have more protection than an average card.

Why would you need it, you've got an iPhone right?

(semi serious here - I'm sure they want you to use Apple Pay)

There is a little thing called COVID. All my main payment cards are contactless now. I am not an Apple card customer.

I'm not an Apple card customer either, but I use Apple pay with my cards usually on my watch, although once in a while it doesn't work at a terminal and I have to pull out my phone (which is annoying since facial recognition doesn't work with a mask on). I understand similar things exist for Android.

Sure, but if you have an Apple card you're going to have an Apple phone, most probably, and that can do the contactless bit for you. Not sure if apple cards and android phones work, but android-pay is the other option for most cards.

Both are more secure than using the card directly with contactless - you have verified to your phone that it is you using it, by logging in with face ID, touch ID, passcode, PIN, whatever. It's a form of cardholder verification that is missing when you use the card.

That was my (slightly snarky) point - you don't need contactless on the card when you have a smart device that does it better.

A contactless card just proves physical possession of the card. An Apple Pay payment means that a password or biometric authentication was performed, AND possession of the device, which raises the barrier to fraud. So there is a good reason to wanting to discourage the use of the card when possible.

If you want more convenience in your contactless payments, Apple suggest that you get a more recent Apple Watch.

(Also semi-serious.)

My credit union cards still have the old-style credit card number on the front (but no raised digits for the ker-chunk machine). My Chase card has the numbers in small type on the back in a non-contrasty color. It's not possible to read in non-ideal lighting conditions.

But I rarely take either card out of my wallet. I use Apple Pay almost everywhere.

What I like about those is that you can stack more cards in the same space.

And the embossed cards tend to have their ink rub off anyway.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com