Apple vs. Banks: The Digital-Wallet War, Explained | WSJ

As consumers, we need to do everything we can to thwart monopolies because neither banks nor tech has our best interests in mind and whomever wins, wins a big chunk of our wallet.

Well, banks didn't roll out contactless cards to compete with Apple Pay, in Europe contactless cards and other digital wallets have existed since 2008 way before Apple Pay, starting with Mastercard PayPass and Visa PayWave. Maybe not in the U.S. but contactless technology was designed to be used with physical cards, then banks started launching their own virtual cards using the NFC capabilities of Android Phones, later Apple gatekeeped NFC to be used only with the Wallet app, forcing banks to pay the fee, creating Apple Pay.

What banks don’t realise is that it’s not just the convenience of tap to pay, it’s the convenience of having your wallet on the device you carry everywhere. I love Apple Pay because it means I can leave my wallet at home and not have to stress about losing it.

This feels like such a US themed video. In the UK, we don’t have the Apple Card, but we’ve literally got app only banks popping up, that basically rely on Apple/Google Pay (for the most part) The way she said “they’re introducing contactless cards”, we’ve had these for eons

I was living in England for a few years and contactless payment was the norm. At restaurants they even brought card scanners to your table. My card would never leave my sight. After coming back to the US I realized how backwards it is when it comes to this technology. In the US, where the server takes your card to the back to scan your card (and with malicious intent write down your card information). I am so excited contactless payment is finally catching up in the US!!

I know Apple is the dominant player, but I would've liked to know how much of a cut Samsung Pay and Google Pay also took.

Every bank's want's to be a tech company and every tech companies want's to be a bank.

One thing you're missing is the fact that banks do not keep the whole interchange fee either. They have to give a portion of it to whichever processing network the transaction was done over. This means that Visa and Mastercard, with their networks, take a fee when it is processed through them. Therefore, they actually only keep ~5-8 cents on a transaction. Then, you add on the fees that Apple and others could take... That is why they're scared.

I always forget how far behind the states actually are, in the UK (and many other places in the world) tap to pay cards and Apple Pay/Google Pay is something that's accepted everywhere and is weird when somewhere doesn't accept it. Edit: this has been the norm for almost a decade

You're missing one big (actually, HUGE) benefit to Apple Pay, your CC number is secure with Apple Pay as it doesn't submit your actual card number! This makes Apple Pay more secure than using your bank/CC institutions card in a transaction. BIG win to Apple for doing this!

Very odd story, considering most of Europe has been contactless for longer than we have. Also, you’re forgetting one important point: Chase quite literally helped develop Apple Pay

About the current bank situation, I'm really concerned. I am worried about a lot more if a bank the size of SVB may fail. I have a friend who manages a fast-growing startup and was severely impacted by the bank run. I have taken more than $840k out of my bank. Since the FDIC only provides coverage up to $250K, an implosion could have negative consequences. presently want to invest in the stock market. Does anyone have any ideas on how I might proceed?Read more

0:29 “absolutely we should be scared shitless about that” That's a real man's cry right there 😭

I want to point out the big difference between, let’s say the USA and a western European country when it comes to card payments. Firstly tap to pay has been an option for over a decade. Virtually every bank terminal has had the option to tap to pay for ages, Apple and Google password just other options when they came. Also, here in Norway our banks worked together to create a instant payment app where you can pay your friends instantly. But they took this further by giving the option to pay in store with the app and also online.

I've been waiting for a return for this series for some years.

Never realised the banks in USA are falling behind in technology like this. In India UPI has made digital wallets irrelevant. Most fintech apps have pivoted towards UPI

Back in about 2015 or 2016, I remember being surprised that Apple Pay still didn't takeoff as much as I thought it would. When they announced it at WWDC 2014 I was sure it was going to be a game-changer that was going to succeed specifically since it is built directly into the iPhone. But my goodness, did the pandemic in 2020 really make this thing suddenly take off, with consumers being afraid to increase physical contact by swapping cards between people. I believe we're now in a era where Apple Pay is too big to fail, since 2020 showed people how quick in effortless it is to just which out your phone and hover it over a display for 2 seconds in comparison to digging into you pocket or purse, finding your card, pulling it out, entering it into the terminal, and doing everything in reverse once completed.

I was in europe (The Netherlands and Germany) a few weeks ago and I got blown away by the amount of contactless payment that people used. I live in Brazil and here we have all it takes for this payment to take off, but somewhow people still preffer to use a card instead of a digital wallet. I have never thought to acquire a smartwatch but seeing people paying their bills through a smartwatch is definitely something i dont get to see on daily basis

Wall Street Journal, please slightly raise the volume, i can't hear the audio well with my phone speakers near maximum

"A computer company ain't just going to walk in and take over the cell phone industry". "An iPod company ain't just going to walk in and take over the Swiss watch industry". A cell phone company ain't just going to walk in and take over the banking industry".