Apple for the day

The New York Times has an article by Molly Wood about Apple Pay:

After I used Apple Pay for a day of shopping in stores, a few things became clear: the new payment system is convenient, problem-free and even fun.
The same can’t be said for using Apple Pay to shop via apps on my phone or tablet. That system has lots of room for improvement. It’s limited, still buggy and seemed to result in multiple charges for some purchases, at least on Day One.
Apple Pay, which was released on Monday, lets owners of the new iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus store credit card information on their phones and then pay in stores using tap-to-pay wireless terminals. People can also buy items on their phone through some apps.
Any store that has a contact-less terminal installed— usually a small screen where you can also swipe your credit card or enter PINs— should be able to accept a payment from an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus. Apple says more than two hundred thousand merchants now support contact-less payments. A select few of those will actually be labeled with an Apple Pay sticker or other branding; you’ll notice them at Whole Foods and Macy’s, for example.
When you’re ready to pay at a store with a contact-less terminal, you hold your iPhone close to the device. The Apple Pay interface opens and shows the credit card you have set as the default. You can then change cards or just put your finger on the fingerprint reader to complete the purchase.
It’s wildly simple, although the process might be slightly different depending on what store you’re in. At Whole Foods, where I spent under a hundred dollars on groceries, I simply held up the phone, gave it my thumbprint, got my receipt, and left.
Some older store terminals still require a signature if a purchase is over a certain amount (usually $25 or $50). I bought a dress at Bloomingdale’s, an early Apple Pay partner, and had to sign for it after tapping to pay.
The same happened at the clothing retailer Zara, which isn’t an official Apple Pay partner, but which accepts contact-less payments. In that case, I still had to choose debit or credit and then sign, but my wallet stayed in my purse.
The setup is a breeze, too. You turn it on by going to Settings, selecting Passbook, and then Apple Pay. Or you can open the Passbook app and turn it on from there. You’ll have to have a credit card stored in your iTunes account (Apple Pay doesn’t support PayPal) and you can store multiple cards in the Passbook app.
Adding cards is easy; you can use the phone’s camera to enter the numbers and expiration date, or enter them manually. Most credit cards from major banks will work, although some smaller credit union cards or store-specific cards may not.
When you are ready to pay, you don’t have to turn on the phone or unlock it. If you are near a terminal and have an app open, like Facebook, the phone turns automatically to the Apple Pay interface. And in most cases, once you press the fingerprint reader, the transaction is over.
Apple says the system is more secure than a traditional credit card payment, because Apple Pay doesn’t send an actual credit card number to the merchant. Instead, it sends a one-time code that allows the purchase to be completed. And Apple says it doesn’t see or keep a record of purchases.
Paying for items through apps turned out to be far more problematic. In apps that support Apple Pay, you choose items and then, when you’re ready to pay, you tap the Apple Pay option and put your thumb or finger on the fingerprint reader to complete the purchase. This works on the new iPhones and also with the new iPads that Apple unveiled last week, but the iPads can’t be used to buy things in physical stores.
With apps, Apple must rely on developers to include the payment system, and then to include it properly. So far, not many apps support the feature; fewer than twenty now, with some more coming in the spring. The apps now working with Apple Pay include Target, Panera Bread, the Disney Store, and Uber, the car-sharing service.
Many of those apps aren’t everyday mobile shopping destinations for most people. And notable omissions include the mobile shopping giant eBay (parent company of PayPal, a competitor to Apple Pay) and Amazon. Neither Amazon nor Apple would comment on whether they were discussing Apple Pay integration.
I shopped for items using the Target app and, instead of creating a new user ID and password and then entering a credit card, I just tapped the Apple Pay button and used my fingerprint to complete checkout. That was nice. But I did have to enter my shipping address before I could check out, and, annoyingly, I couldn’t add multiple items to my cart and then check out; I had to pay for them individually using Apple Pay.
Uber initially let me request a car without signing in, but the app made me sign in after the car had been requested,and then asked for an email and phone number. The multiple steps caused Apple Pay to authorize three separate payments of the Uber base fare.
Something similar happened when I used the Instacart app to order groceries. Each time I tried to check out, the order appeared successful and I got a charge notification. But then I got an error saying the order didn’t actually go through because of a formatting problem. My bank saw three separate charges, although Instacart assured me the problem was fixed and I wouldn’t be overcharged. I talked to Apple and Instacart about the issue, and it appears that the formatting of the data was misinterpreted along the way, a technical problem fixed later in the day. Still, I’ll need to be stalking my credit card statements for weeks to come.
So Apple Pay seems to be halfway there. Shopping in stores using the service was carefree and futuristic, but the app experience will obviously be harder to get right. Still, Apple Pay is already the most promising digital payment option on the market. I suspect my wallet is about to start spending a lot more time in my purse.

Rico says he'll wait awhile to try it...