Schmidt sees NFC terminals everywhere

Eric Schmidt reckons a third of shops will be NFC enabled in 2012, but Google won't pay for the terminals – that's up to the credit card companies. According to Google's executive chairman, credit card companies will pay for the new terminals, with the critical mass of one in three to hit sometime next year and enabling Google …

[poohbear]

bank charges

Don't know about the UK but here in wintery South Africa the banks typically hit you around 1% to deposit cash, and another 1% to withdraw it (yeah, bloody crooks they are!).

So if NFC costs are less than this, retailers will be thrilled to bits....

[GettinSadda]

NFC = no effing consent

The problem with NFC is that there is no action taken by the card-holder to signify consent. With old-fashioned cards this was signing a slip, with C&P this is entering your pin. With NFC your consent is supposed to be signified by you placing your card on the machine - however how can the system tell the difference between a card placed on a machine and a machine held against the pocket of the card-holder in a crowded place?

I can see loads of ways to game this system to get extra payments, even as simple as placing a reader (perhaps a clone of the main reader) under the counter in a shop - any customer who places their card or wallet on the counter while queueing gets an extra charge of £2.50 for a latte.

A bit of modification to a card reader and you could probably skim a few quid off everyone that passed though a doorway.

If I ever end up having to have one of these cards, it will be kept in a metal container when not being used!

[Tom Chiverton 1]

Ever since

Ever since Barclays jumped on the idiotic band wagon, I've been sending people to :

http://www.smartcardfocus.com/shop/ilp/se~59/p/ to buy just such a thing

Sadly Barclays wont let you opt out of the less secure NFC cards...

[JasonW]

I see NFC terminals everywhere too...

... and not long after they appear, lots of sheeple will start appearing on Watchdog/similar moaning that their bank account was drained through it.

NFC of me using NFC connected to my bank account or credit card (*maybe* on a stored value system so I can limit my exposure/loss)

[DrXym]

Why would shops or users want this?

When I pay with PayPal, merchants get slapped with more fees than if I had paid with a credit card which in some cases is already too much. This is doubtless because PayPal takes a hit when money is deducted from a credit card and then it has its own markup on top. NFC is likely to be exactly the same - NFC processor tops up from credit card so fees it charges by definition must be >= credit card fees.

How is NFC going to take off when the proposition is for stores to give even more of their money away to payment processors than they already do?

And for consumers, where is the convenience of whipping out an expensive phone versus a plastic card? Do people really want their phone to not only be an attractive item to thieves in its own right but also for any money it contains?

I think NFC would be more useful and palatable if it were just an RFID stuck into a credit card. If people absolutely want to see their transactions on their phones I'm sure there is an app for that. No need to insert yet another middleman into the chain.

[Anonymous Coward]

NFC not new

We've been using it in Canada for at least 4-5 years with no outcry or major increases in fraud. My credit cards now have both chip and pin and NFC. If I pay by NFC in a store then I'm asked for a signature. But at gas pumps for example no signature is required when using NFC.

[DrXym]

And that's the ticket

I have no objection to NFC in cards, assuming it has some sensible rules (and controls) about spending. A user should be able to PIN enable or disable NFC and to set daily limits on what it can be used for without a PIN challenge. I have a huge objection to stuffing these things into phones and to extra middlemen slapping 1-2% fees on top of items purchased through devices. At the end of the day someone will pay for those fees, whether it is the merchant or consumer and there is no reason for it.

[nederlander]

touch to borrow

God forbid that a subject be given several seconds to think between exposure to advertising and completion of the suggested purchase.

Another brick on the accelerator of planetary destruction, sorry, human progress.

[mhenriday]

Wonder what the fraud rate is

when people pay cash ? But of course, that's going out of style, as various authorities find it much too anonymous and harder to monitor. When are we going to get chips mounted in at birth, so our putative «servants» can monitor us more efficiently ?...

Henri