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Apple Pay Rival CurrentC Launching in Limited Trial Next Month as Exclusivity Expires

Friday July 24, 2015 10:20 am PDT by Mitchel Broussard
currentc_phoneThe Merchant Customer Exchange's contactless payment system, CurrentC, is gearing up for a limited trial run next month in the stores of the companies that began backing MCX in 2012, including Walmart, Target, and Best Buy, according to unnamed sources speaking with Bloomberg.

The service is backed by a large roster of retailers, from Sears to Wendy's, who support the platform as a way to avoid losing integral shopping data to an increasingly competitive market thanks to the likes of Apple and Google.

CurrentC is different from Apple Pay however, using barcodes and RFID scanners in place of NFC terminals Apple took advantage of with Apple Pay. As Bloomberg points out, it also has a major hurdle regarding the signing of deals with major credit card companies, something it has yet to do.
While MCX is getting closer to releasing its app, there are plenty of hurdles. It hasn’t signed deals with major credit-card companies like Visa to use bank-issued card accounts within the app. That means a shopper wouldn’t be able to use, say, a Visa debit card from JPMorgan Chase & Co. This can be done with competing products like Apple Pay. Instead, users of MCX’s app will be limited to private-label store cards, like Target’s REDcard, or they’ll have to give MCX their checking-account details.
Also worrisome for MCX is the three-year exclusivity contract each retailer signed when the company began talks of the CurrentC system back in 2012. Those contracts -- which prohibited partnering with other mobile payment services -- begin to end next month, alongside CurrentC's soft launch in August. The company has already felt the weight of this, as Best Buy announced back in April it would begin supporting Apple Pay within its mobile app, with in-store support gearing up for later in 2015.

Not long after, MCX's CEO at the time, Dekkers Davidson, left the company, with a spokeswoman telling press that Davidson's exit had nothing to do with the announcement made by Best Buy days before. Payments security analyst Julie Conroy spoke on the subject to Bloomberg, reiterating on the public's trust issues with the company following a hack last year and stating simply, “I’m increasingly skeptical of their chance to really make a dent.”

Related Roundup: Apple Pay
Tags: MCX, CurrentC
[ 138 comments ]


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nagromme
47 months ago
I could jump through a million hoops, more awkward than swiping a card, to give a few specific retailers direct, insecure access to my bank account, putting all of the fraud liability on myself while they build and sell a profile on my life.

Or I could use fast, simple, secure, private, widely-supported Apple Pay that pays out of my existing, fraud-protected credit cards.

I'll have to sleep on it...
Rating: 46 Votes
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bmunge
47 months ago
How many millions were wasted on this DOA effort?
Rating: 36 Votes
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sampaul
47 months ago
This thing still exists??? LOL
Rating: 23 Votes
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mlts22
47 months ago
I don't want it. I remember reading they were hacked last October.

The big problem is no credit cards. Pretty much just ACH debits. This means, if fraud happens, you are out that cash, and you can't contest it, as you can with credit cards. I'm pretty sure this is why the merchants like it -- no fear of Visa/MC and credit card dispute paperwork.

Definitely not a service I'd trust around my wallet.
Rating: 22 Votes
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Andres Cantu
47 months ago
Oh CurrentC, in development since 2012, in panic since 2014.
Rating: 16 Votes
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macnewbie91
47 months ago

Apply Pay is nice and all ... but it requires an iPhone. There are still millions of people that use other types of phones ... so options are a good thing.


There's also these two other payment services called Android Pay, and also Samsung Pay, which use NFC payment solutions just like how Apple Pay works. I cannot believe I have to tell you this.
Rating: 14 Votes
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Zxxv
47 months ago
once people see how clunky the experience is compared to apple pay they will laugh and ridicule it.

You want a monkey experience hire monkeys
Rating: 12 Votes
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WigWag Workshop
47 months ago
I am guessing, Walmart will be the only one that will be supporting this technology, till the bitter end.
Rating: 10 Votes
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Prof.
47 months ago
lol
Rating: 8 Votes
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gnasher729
47 months ago

Apply Pay is nice and all ... but it requires an iPhone. There are still millions of people that use other types of phones ... so options are a good thing.


There are alternatives for Android phones. And the way everything is designed, if you accept either of them then the other one comes for free automatically. Actually, if you accept contactless debit/credit cards, both come for free and you'd have to invest extra effort to turn one of them off.

The point of CurrentC is that it has huge advantages for the trader, and huge, huge disadvantages for the customer. Sellers may be quite happy giving you a rubbish experience if it adds money to their pocket. On the other hand, if one store offers a nice experience that is also safe and doesn't give the seller access to your bank account, and the other store doesn't, where will you go shopping?
Rating: 8 Votes

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