Apple Pay isn’t the first mobile payment solution, it wasn’t even the first, but one service has been earning a lot of attention long before it launches to the public.
CurrentC, the mobile payment option backed by the Merchant Customer Exchange, is set to launch in a limited trial run beginning in August, according to an anonymous source speaking to Bloomberg. The trial will be available in stores in which the option has been backed since 2012, including big box retailers like Best Buy, Walmart, Wendy’s, Target and many others. With CurrentC, these retailers and restaurants will not lose any targeted shopping data, as they do with purchases made with Apple Pay, which is one reason why these businesses backed it in the first place.
CurrentC has several key differences from Apple Pay, including the functionality of using RFID scanners and barcodes instead of NFC-based payments, but one big hurdle the mobile payment solution still has to clear is agreements with the major credit card companies, like Visa and MasterCard:“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.
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Back in April, one of the MCX’s initial backers, Best Buy, officially confirmed that the retailer would be supporting Apple Pay at some point in the future. That announcement was possible due to the exclusivity agreements that were signed back in 2012, which were set to last for three years, are ending in August of 2015. While many shops and other businesses might support CurrentC at some point down the line, it would appear that a big obstacle of Apple Pay will clear up in August, leaving even more room for Apple’s solution to expand.
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[via Bloomberg]
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