NFC World

US merchants increase support for NFC in stores, cut back on Apple Pay and Google Pay online

New survey finds fewer merchants accepting Apple Pay — Kount — “Support is up across the board for near field communication (up from 29% to 37%) and other mobile payments at the physical point-of-sale… Online merchant support for Apple Pay has gone down from 48% to 35%, Google Pay (previously Android Pay), is down from 38% to 25%, support for PayPal increased (from 48% to 64%) while 10% accept AliPay and 10% accept other e-wallets. The share of merchants who accept Samsung Pay, Visa Checkout, MasterPass, and Chase Pay all stayed constant from last year.”




What's New in Payments

JCB to add support for Google Pay in Japan

JCB to offer Google Pay in Japan — JCB — “JCB will enable Google Pay for in-store payments in Japan through its QuicPay contactless payment solution. At launch, Google Pay users will be able to make payments on their enrolled JCB credit, debit, or prepaid card at convenience stores, supermarkets, drugstores, and other shops where QuicPay is accepted and online wherever JCB is accepted. Credit, debit, and prepaid cards can be enrolled using the Google Pay app on Osaifu Keitai supported devices with Android OS 5.0 or higher version.”


What's New in Payments

Google Pay adds support for Japanese payment cards

Now you can add Suica and Waon to Google Pay in Japan — Google — “Starting today, you can add and manage your Suica and Waon cards in Google Pay if you live in Japan and have an Osaifu-Keitai eligible phone. This means four major Japanese prepaid e-money cards — Nanaco, Rakuten Edy, Suica and Waon — can all be used with Google Pay. You’ll be able to pay with Google Pay at the hundreds of locations that accept any of these cards, plus pay on transit anywhere Suica is accepted.”




Transit Ticketing Today

Translink adds mobile payments for transit users in Vancouver

Tap to Pay — Translink — “On May 22, our card readers will accept contactless Visa and Mastercard credit cards and Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay. For customers without Compass Cards, this new feature will mean no more ticket line-ups, digging for exact change, or worrying about pre-calculating zones. You can tap a contactless Visa or Mastercard credit card or mobile-payment method on card readers to pay your adult, cash fare. Note: card readers will not accept debit cards.”


What's New in Payments

Google Pay update to provide users with a single view of all their transactions

Google Pay’s app adds boarding passes, tickets, P2P payments and more — Techcrunch — “In an upcoming update of the Google Pay app, we’re going to allow you to manage all the payment methods in your Google account — not just the payment methods that you used to pay in-store… And even better, we’re going to provide you with a holistic view of all your transactions — whether they be on Google apps and services, such as Play and YouTube, whether they be with third-party merchants, such as Walgreens and Uber, or whether they’re transactions you’ve made to friends and families via our peer-to-peer service.”


NFC World

Google Pay adds support for NFC tickets and boarding passes

Google Pay gains support for event tickets and boarding passes — VentureBeat — “Companies that integrate with Google Pay’s API — such as Ticketmaster — can enable their customers to save tickets directly to their phone by hitting the ‘Save to phone’ button after the checkout… Instead of having to open the Google Pay app or scan QR codes, fans will be able to simply hold their phone up to an NFC reader at the check-in to gain admission.”



What's New in Payments

Google Pay begins to roll out on the web

5 ways Google Pay can save you time and money at checkout — Google — “We’re starting to roll out Google Pay on the web from desktop and iOS — which means you’ll start seeing it when you’re shopping on browsers like Chrome, Safari, and Firefox, no matter your device… Once you’ve added a card to Google Pay, you won’t need to enter your payment info again — even when you’re checking out in an app or on a site for the first time. And if you’re checking out on Chrome, Google Pay can automatically fill in your billing, shipping, and payment info, so you don’t have to bother with forms.”


What's New in Payments

ANZ reports 156% increase in mobile payment volumes

ANZ sees dramatic uptake in digital wallet payments — iTnews — “ANZ Bank customers made almost A$600 million in mobile payments during the first half of fiscal year 2018… Customers completed more than 18.5m mobile payment transactions in the half, an increase of 156% on the previous corresponding period. ANZ said the transactions were made from mobile wallet services from Apple, Samsung, Google, Fitbit and Garmin, as well as the bank’s own Mobile Pay service.”


What's New in Payments

Google’s mobile payments app has now been installed 100m times

Google Pay hits 100m installs on the Play Store — Android Police — “100m is impressive, but it may not be nearly as impressive as you’re imagining. For instance, Google Pay uses the same Play Store listing and APK pname (com.google.android.apps.walletnfcrel) as Android Pay, which Android Pay continued to use from Google Wallet. Additionally, Google Wallet/Android Pay/Google Pay has been pre-installed on quite a few devices.”


Transit Ticketing Today

Google Pay expands support for transit ticketing cards to Portland

Google Pay now supports Hop Fastpass transit tickets in Portland, Oregon — Android Police — “To use Google Pay to pay for transit in Portland, users must first download the Hop Fastpass app and add money to create a virtual card. Once the virtual card is set up, holding your phone up the reader will work the same as with a regular Hop card.”


What's New in Payments

Google Assistant adds support for voice-based payments

Now the Google Assistant can take care of your IOUs — Google — “Starting today, you can ask your Google Assistant to pay your friends back with Google Pay… You can easily send or request money from your contacts — for free — using the Assistant on Android and iOS phones in the US. In the coming months, you’ll be able to send money on voice-activated speakers like Google Home… To get started, just say ‘Hey Google, request $20 from Sam for the show tonight’ or ‘Hey Google, send Jane $15 for lunch today.’”


What's New in Payments

Church of England rolls out contactless donations to 16,000 churches, cathedrals and religious sites

Church of England brings cashless transactions to its congregations — Church of England — “Over 16,000 churches, cathedrals, and religious sites will now have access to portable card readers through the Church of England’s Parish Buying portal through a partnership with SumUp and iZettle. The readers will be used to take contactless payments, Apple Pay and Google Pay, as well as chip & pin… Technology facilitating charitable donations on a self-service basis, including passing around a reader for the collection, continues to be trialled and is expected to be launched in phase two of the project.”


Transit Ticketing Today

Google Pay adds support for Mifare public transportation tickets

NXP’s Mifare 2Go and Google Pay transform public transportation — NXP — PARTNER NEWS — “Combining Google Pay with the security, flexibility and scalability of Mifare products, this solution serves as a catalyst for the mobile transit experience, as it will be available for any consumer equipped with widely-available Android phones that support Near Field Communication (NFC)… The first deployment of this solution went live today with the Las Vegas Monorail.”


What's New in Payments

Google to let users send money directly from their Google Contacts app?

Google Contacts adds ability to send money via Google Pay Send — Android Police — “Back in November, Google added money transfers to Android Messages via Google Wallet (now known as Google Pay Send). We noticed some strings in our teardown of the Google Contacts app last week that suggested the same addition would be coming soon, and it’s now hit at least one reader in Canada.”