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Comment by Nursie | Hacker News Reader

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

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

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.

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.

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

(Also semi-serious.)

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