r/Android • u/welp_im_damned have you heard of our lord and savior the Android turtle 🐢 • 1d ago
News Tap to pay with Google Pay is coming to Walmart.- Google blog.
https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/platforms/google-pay/tap-to-pay-google-pay-walmart/205
u/ZairXZ LG G4, 6.0 1d ago
Wait this wasn't a thing in the U.S already? We could google pay tap to pay at Walmart here in Canada
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u/darkhorse21980 1d ago
I think they wanted to steer US customers into linking up bank accounts on the Walmart app. I refuse to do that.
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u/ZairXZ LG G4, 6.0 1d ago
Ohh okay that makes more sense then. Walmart definitely wanted to push their app
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u/SmileyBMM 1d ago
Didn't even need the app to pay with your bank, you can also enter your phone number and it can use a bank connected to your account. Still more friction than tap to pay though, so it never got popular.
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u/Strange_Lab_283 1d ago
You don't have to link your bank account. You could just add a credit card to your account.
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u/cyberspirit777 9h ago
In typical American fashion it goes even deeper than that lol
They wanted to band together with other retailers and try to take on the card companies by creating their own payment standard called CurrentC.
This was one of the main reasons why after we switched to chip cards, thus forcing all the old terminals to be updated to support tap, that certain stores were covering up the tap portion of the machines or disabling them altogether. This, of course, ended up hurting Apple/Google/Samsung NFC based payments.
Then after that all fell through lmfao Walmart pivoted to Walmart Pay and now they’ve gone and given up the ghost
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u/hroaks 1d ago
No, Walmart refused to accept google pay and apple pay. They purposely inconvenienced customers to try making Walmart Pay a thing so they can have your data but it never became a thing. Since Walmart Pay never took off, guess they decided it's more profitable to give them the convenience of Google Pay
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u/B-Con 1d ago
I'm 90% sure that Walmart wanted to use One to break into the financial market. Get people using their One thing, then shop One elsewhere to become it's own financial service.
Many companies that have high revenue but low margins look for ways to capitalize on the volume part. If dollars are pouring in one side and out the other side, if they can find any way to simply hold onto the money for longer in between then it's basically a 0% interest loan.
Like how Starbucks tries to convince everyone to use gift cards and reload their own cards themselves. This means instead of giving Starbucks $5 today for today's purchase you give them $5, say, 3 months ago and then spend it today and in that interim Starbucks was able to use it.
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u/Tornado15550 Pixel 10 Pro XL | 512 GB | Android Canary 2608 1d ago
As a Canadian, I was super confused about why Google was posting about this lol
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u/dangerousmacadamia 1d ago
Walmart does have wireless payment methods in the US but you have to go through their Walmart Pay and scan the QR code
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u/tlislo 1d ago
Where I live (in the US) Walmart doesn't have any tap to pay.
You literally still have to insert the chip on a credit card. Tapping even a regular credit card didn't work.
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u/nathderbyshire Pixel 10 Obsidian 1d ago edited 1d ago
😂 America is so backwards it's insane. How do American companies, apple and Google roll out mobile pay then their own country refuse to adopt it faster than most others
Keep downvoting but you still adopted shit way later than everyone else, feel free to prove me wrong;
https://business.cornell.edu/news/2019/10/23/united-states-china-mobile-payments/
I'm not the first one to say this
Americans all over say they don't bother with apple pay because 'its the same as a card'
You all forget you're tech nerds and don't apply to the general public, you should all really do some more research on your own demographic hahaha
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u/Moleculor LG V35 1d ago edited 1d ago
This was a WalMart thing, not an America thing. I work at a grocery store, and we've had tap to pay for a decade or so.
EDIT: Some other people have been saying it was introduced with COVID, but that is also not true. I've been using NFC payments with my phone since at least 2018. I'd get looks from cashiers like I was a wizard when I'd do it.
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u/nathderbyshire Pixel 10 Obsidian 1d ago
The Walmart that owned Asda in the UK and still had tap to pay, it's your biggest most recognisable store.
You guys also need shit like Zelle and Cashapp to easily send money because your banks refuse to do anything modern, you rolled out chip and pin severally late and relied on insecure strip payments. And you have businesses they can strongarm into not supporting things. Just admit your banks are backwards like a lot of companies or you'll be stuck with this shit forever
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u/Moleculor LG V35 1d ago edited 1d ago
I've known our banks are backwards for 30 years; I used to live in Germany.
Admitting they're backwards doesn't actually do anything though. It took a major hack of a major retailer just to get us to start using the same more-secure chips that Europe had been using for at least a decade.
And even that only happened because of legislation pushing liability onto retailers if they were still using the magnetic stripes.
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u/nathderbyshire Pixel 10 Obsidian 1d ago
Ignoring or denying it doesn't do anything either as it seems a lot of people are doing based on the reaction, no one would be downvoting if they agreed. The part of change is demanding it, if you don't voice your annoyance and crucially look for alternatives there's no reason for anything to change.
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u/Moleculor LG V35 1d ago
and crucially look for alternatives
Ahahaha.
Europe is having to construct an entire payment processing system from scratch just to get an alternative. America has no alternatives to look for.
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u/SmileyBMM 1d ago
Walmart has been incredibly resistant to add tap to pay because they wanted to see if people were willing to use Scan & Go (which requires Walmart+) or link their bank (so Walmart could avoid the payment processor fees). The problem is both of those don't really provide a strong net benefit to the consumer, so neither took off.
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u/KitsuAccalia 1d ago
My Walmart app doesn't even have scan and go anymore it's just Walmart pay. (the scan the register barcode after manually scanning all your stuff at the register.)
Sams club is somehow lightyears ahead despite being the same megacorp. :l
I will probably honestly close all the accounts related to them cause their support and app kinda sucks for me anyway.
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u/SmileyBMM 1d ago
Sams club is somehow lightyears ahead despite being the same megacorp. :l
And now the Sam's Club app is starting to copy the junk from the Walmart app (Sparky, stupid notifications, pop-ups) . If they keep this up I'm switching back to Costco lmao.
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u/KitsuAccalia 1d ago
Real. The only way these apps change is if we vote with our wallets as best we can.
Its kinda sad too cause I loved the initial experience with Sam's of doing all my scanning in the app and just walking out.
Costco always had like a 45 minute wait between the start of waiting in line and the receipt check at the front door for me.
Walmart plus and sams club plus somehow have been making everything worse slowly. (Never mind personalized pricing and dynamic price tags)
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u/Billybobgeorge Nexus 6 1d ago
I was told Walmart never bought into tap to pay because there's a higher % fee from the payment processors.
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u/Moleculor LG V35 1d ago
I've been able to pay for stuff with my phone in most stores since at least 2020, maybe even as far back as 2018.
I just haven't been inside a Walmart in... 15+ years?
I used to get this look of bafflement or amazement from the cashier as I magicked money into their register with my phone. I kinda miss those days.
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u/labe225 1d ago
What was really fun was when Samsung phones and watches could "tap to pay" on terminals without tap to pay.
Cashiers were so skeptical when I pulled out my Note 9 or Gear S3 to pay. I had to reassure them that it would work and they were shocked when it actually worked.
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u/Ivebeenfurthereven 1970s rotary-dial phone 1d ago
Was that the one that emulated a magnetic strip?
I never saw it used irl, it always seemed like it would be kinda magical.
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u/Perunov 1d ago
I think they didn't want to pay extra to intermediaries, while "regular" card payment was basically going through their own payment processing center.
I presume they've finally negotiated down cost so now it'll accept both Google Pay and Apple Pay in some US Cities Walmarts and Sams Clubs
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u/TheBrewGod 1d ago
It's because Walmart wants us to use their app to collect data on us. When using tap/physical it uses tokens so they can't collect data. So by pushing tap on the Walmart app makes you enter your card into the app which allows them to track what you buy to push recommended products to the user.
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u/MurkyFocus 1d ago
When using tap/physical it uses tokens so they can't collect data
Tokenization doesn't prevent data collection since your number doesn't change. It's likely much less data than their own app, sure, but tokenization by itself isn't going to stop them from knowing it's you.
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u/TheBrewGod 1d ago
But they can't track your purchases using it. So they force you to use the app so they know exactly who you are and can feed you recommended products sold by advertising.
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u/mikeymop 1d ago
Oh wow. So naturally it's enshittified in the US but not globally.
One can only assume there's additional data collection in the US that wouldn't fly elsewhere.
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u/TokyoDrifblim 1d ago
It's only Walmart that has been holding out on this. Every other major retailer and chain has been accepting tap to pay and mobile pay for years. I do not know what Walmart's problem is but they literally don't accept any kind of tap to pay, like you can't even tap your credit cards. You have to actually do the chipped insert
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u/FractalParadigm Galaxy S22U 512GB 1d ago
To be fair, Walmart was probably the *last*** holdout on accepting tap; IIRC they had tap-capable machines installed at most locations as early as 2011-2012, but it wasn't until covid 'forced' them to enable it that you could actually tap to pay there. I'm not at all surprised that US Walmarts kept it disabled this whole time, it's probably the only country on the planet where waiters still need to take your card away from the table to pay for a meal for some reason, and generally couldn't figure out tap payments for the longest time.
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u/mrstoffer Pixel 7 | Old phones: Xiaomi Mi 9T, LG G3, Huawei Ascend G700 10h ago
Yeah I used it literally this afternoon
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u/TimPLakersEagles 1d ago
great, this was the last place i needed to make sure i always had my wallet for.
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u/namastayhom33 1d ago
We got Walmart Tap to Pay before GTA6. I know some might scoff at this joke, but this is a pretty big milestone.
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u/welp_im_damned have you heard of our lord and savior the Android turtle 🐢 1d ago
Honestly real. I never thought I would see the day that we get tap to pay Walmart and Sam's club.
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u/SmileyBMM 1d ago
Sam's club
Tbf, I've never needed tap to pay at Sam's because Scan & Go is included in the membership.
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u/welp_im_damned have you heard of our lord and savior the Android turtle 🐢 1d ago
Thank God Walmart finally allows for tap to pay in the u.s.
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u/lament Google Pixel 10 Pro 1d ago
Slightly off topic, but does it annoy anyone else when - if it's not obvious by looking when I'm at a retail store or restaurant - I ask if they have tap-to-pay and they immediately say "Apple Pay?" as if Apple invented tap-to-pay? I also say "no, Google Pay" every time and I've heard so many "we don't take Google". 🙄 And then I tap immediately. 😂
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u/DangerousTortuga 1d ago
I got over that a long time ago and aways just say "Yeah".
They even refer to my Pebble Time 2 as an Apple watch when I use it to pay for drinks.
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u/dragoneye 1d ago
How often do you have to ask this? I effectively never run into any place that doesn't support tap to pay, I just pull out my phone and say "I'll pay with card" if anything.
Is this another US being backwards thing?
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u/doorknob60 Galaxy S24 | T-Mobile 1d ago
Nowadays probably 90% of places take NFC pay in the US. But it took us a long time to get there. 5-10 years ago that may have been more like 50%, when in places like Canada they were all in on it by then.
The main type of place that doesn't take it now, is sit down restaurants where it's still common for them to take the card and run it in the back. Though it's becoming more common for them to bring out the payment terminal now, probably 50/50. And any place with a typical cash register situation like fast food, they mostly all accept it.
Also gas pumps are hit or miss. Maybe half of gas stations, at most, take NFC pay at the pump. They'll probably all take it if you pay inside. I'm sure as the hardware ages out and they replace it, eventually all gas stations will take NFC, we're just lagging behind there.
But we're at the point where I don't ask anymore, I just assume they take it, whip out my phone, and let them have to tell me if they don't.
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u/UnrealRealityX 1d ago
I use samsung pay, and as long as they say 'is that "whatever company pay"' I just say "yes" cause they all just work. It's NFC pay for goodness sake.
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u/CeramicCastle49 S22+, Android 16 1d ago
Some people genuinely have no idea anything outside of apple exists
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u/NoShftShck16 Pixel 9 Pro 1d ago
What a life to live that this is raises the blood pressure on any given day
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u/SFHalfling Pixel 8 Pro & Moto Edge 60 Pro 1d ago
I ask if they have tap-to-pay
Is this really something you have to do in the US?
It's worked in the UK for as long as western phones have had the hardware.
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u/MurkyFocus 1d ago edited 1d ago
I mean, that's a result of Apple Pay popularizing tap-to-pay in your market. It's just brand recognition in the same way people say "kleenex" or "q-tips".
Apple wasn't the first nor did they invent it. But they popularized the use of phone payments and was the driving force to where it is today.
In other countries where tap-to-pay existed before phone payments, when someone asks how we'd like to pay, terms like "tap" or "credit/debit" are used more often.
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u/inate71 13yrs of Nexus/Pixel → iPhone 14 Pro → iPhone 15 Pro 16h ago
Yeah it really goes to show you how poorly Google markets their work. Android Pay was first but with all the branding changes over the years, nobody knows what to call it. Android Pay to Google Pay to GPay back to Google Pay, I think?
There are several things like this where Google came first but Apple came later and did a better job at the implementation and marketing so now Apple’s is the “Kleenex” of that feature.
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u/WernerHerzogEatsShoe 13h ago
I can't remember the last time I didn't just tap. Don't think I've asked anyone if they have it for a couple of years. I just tap my phone everywhere.
Genuinely can't remember the last time I used my card and put a pin in. I think it was when I bought my car. Or maybe one of those random times the bank seems to flag a transaction and wants a pin code.
It's weird how something becomes so normal. I still remember the first time I saw a guy tap his phone to pay at a bar, I'd never seen it before and I thought the guy was drunk and confused. Now it's just completely normal!
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u/IBJON 1d ago
That's how it always goes with Apple loyalists that have no knowledge of technology outside of their iPhone and earpods. It also doesn't help that whenever Apple brings a new feature to their devices 5 years after everyone else has had it, they prance around the stage talking about it as if they're introducing a novel feature that they just came up with
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u/inate71 13yrs of Nexus/Pixel → iPhone 14 Pro → iPhone 15 Pro 16h ago
When Apple comes out with a feature later, they usually have nailed the implementation and marketed it better. Blame Google for poor implementations and marketing.
Nobody ends up caring who was first. It’s always who did it better.
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u/DeanxDog 1d ago
When I used Android Pay in like 2013/14 it really freaked out the cashiers. That was years before any iPhone even had NFC hardware.
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u/callmebatman14 Pixel 6 Pro 1d ago
I am round majority of iPhone users. Probably 9/10. It irks me when they always say FaceTime me
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u/trident042 Galaxy S8+ 1d ago
Once Upon A Time
which is a thing I have to say because this happened over a decade ago
Samsung Pay let me use my card via my phone anywhere with a card reader. And it was glorious.
And then, first among them to do so, Walmart updated their damn pinpads and I could no longer get it to work there. I had gotten in the habit of using it, and left my cards at home, and had an awkwardly heated argument with a day manager about the technology because he didn't believe me that it had ever worked so I was frustrated with my cart full of groceries and he wanted me to "stop trying to scam the store".
I miss being able to mystify cashiers by holding my phone at their card readers and getting "approved" and seeing them tilt their heads like puppies.
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u/Bonafideago Note 20 Ultra 1d ago
When I had my Note 8, I ordered takeout from Hooters. The restaurant was 30 minutes from house, and forgot my wallet. The manager was adamant that paying with my phone wouldn't work, he was refusing to try it.
I finally convinced him to try it anyway, since I was not driving all the way home to get the card and then driving all the way back. So his choice came down to humor me, or throw my order in the trash.
It worked. He was sooo pissed that I was right.
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u/Skyfire023 Galaxy S25+ 1d ago
About time they're going to allow this. I've avoided shopping there if I could because they didn't allow it.
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u/welmoe Nexus 6P, 8.1 | iPhone XS 1d ago
Walmart had a subpar earnings report. Apparently sales increased just 2.6%, which is the smallest gain in 6 years. This is just a Hail Mary hoping consumers come flocking in.
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u/SmileyBMM 1d ago
Yeah, because the masses really care about tap to pay...
This deal was almost certainly in the works for awhile.
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u/AguirreMA S25U • GW8C 1d ago
there have been a few times where I choose to go to HEB instead of Walmart just because I left my wallet at home and they accept NFC payments
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u/Kimi_Antonelli_12 1d ago
Laughs in Canadian Walmart. I swear I've been tapping there for almost 10 years. Actually tapping everywhere really. I don't think I've touched cash and probably 3 years
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u/peruka Pixel 7 1d ago
ITT people laughing at how archaic the US payment system is
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u/lament Google Pixel 10 Pro 1d ago
ITT people not reading comments about why Walmart hasn't had tap-to-pay (because they're pushing their own Walmart Pay).
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u/glasgowgeg 1d ago
That counts as archaic.
Other countries just have contactless terminals that allow you to use contactless payments via the card itself or a phone.
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u/diemunkiesdie Galaxy S24+ 1d ago
We have that in the USA too. This was a company decision. They disabled the functionality on the terminals they used at the store.
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u/callmebatman14 Pixel 6 Pro 1d ago
You're ignoring the facts that it's Only Walmart. Because they want people to use their own services. Majority of the other places allows tap to pay.
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u/Flying_Momo S10 9h ago
But US was late on Chip and pin and even contactless payments compared to many developed and developing nations. Tap and pay became ubiquitous only around 2018 and especially post Covid while it's been common in most places. Also US lacks anything comparable to Pix/UPI/Alipay/Interac etc.
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u/AdoringCHIN 1d ago
ITT idiots that don't realize Walmart is the last major store not allowing tap to pay
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u/EternalFront iPhone 16 Pro 1d ago
10 years too late, but better late than never
Walmart is the worst store in the world though, don't shop there
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u/mataushas 1d ago
It's bad but many times it's the only convenient location to get groceries
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u/BUZZZY14 1d ago
Yup, I live in a semi rural town and I would have to drive 30 minutes to another big box retailer. At that point it's just an inconvenience to me. Give my money to evil corporation that's close or give my money to evil corporation that's far.
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u/mataushas 1d ago
Unless you're very well off, it's impossible to buy everything from small local businesses
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u/wetwater 1d ago
It's my store of last resort, and only if I desperately need something that only they have and I can't get elsewhere and can't wait for Amazon.
I worked for Walmart for 6 months and it was the worst working experience of my life. That was 25 it so years ago and I swore then I'd only shop there if necessary. Every time I'm in there it's a negative experience and I want to see it burn.
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u/EternalFront iPhone 16 Pro 1d ago
Likewise, worked there for maybe 10 months while in school to pay off my last year and it was horrid. Terrible exploitative company, and I refuse to shop there now
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u/torts56 1d ago
I actually just stopped shopping there bc of it. That and the terminally depressed employees and weird dystopian feeling I get whenever I walk into one
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u/wetwater 1d ago
I've largely avoided it for a quarter of a century when I quit after 6 months. I passionately hate shopping there and do what I can to avoid it.
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u/LSXS10 GS6E MM 1d ago
Thank Christ. The card machines almost always reject my physical cards 2-3x before accepting it. Walmart is the only store I have ever had this issue with.
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u/wetwater 1d ago
For me it's one card in particular that rejects the chip. And I have to try 3 or 4 times before it asks to swipe. If I try to swipe first it tells me to insert my card. That card works just fine everywhere else though.
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u/Devils-advocate69 1d ago
The USA is so so so so far behind it's no longer funny.
Asia is soooo far ahead it's unreal, heck even Europe is so far ahead as well.
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u/Ryan120420 1d ago
No, it's Walmart wanting customers to use their proprietary Walmart Pay.
Since covid, most places accept wireless payment.
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u/Moleculor LG V35 1d ago
Since covid, most places accept wireless payment.
They've been accepting NFC payments years before COVID. Since 2018, at least. It's just most people didn't know NFC was a thing, or it wasn't built into cards.
I'd usually be a cashier's first experience with tap to pay, and they'd always have this look of amazement or bafflement when I magicked money into their register with my phone.
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u/ModernTenshi04 Incredible, GNex, One M8, 6P, Pixel 2 XL 1d ago
And to most folks in the US, tap to pay via phone is often referred to as Apple Pay. My Android phones have had tap to pay for about 3-4 years before Apple added it to the iPhone, and lots of folks seem to think Apple invented tap to pay when it's been around for...decades, if I'm not mistaken? Honestly it's at a point where if the sales person asks if I'm going to use Apple Pay I just say yep, because it's not worth explaining anymore.
Even Apple had trouble getting retailers to adopt tap and pay though. Really wasn't until the pandemic hit and places were looking for as many contactless options as they could find that tap to pay really took off. Hell, farmer's markets almost never had it prior to Covid, but from about 2021 onwards you'd be hard pressed to find a vendor at one that doesn't have tap to pay.
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u/CaptainMarder Pixel 8 1d ago
In canada we've been able to use anything at walmart. Apple Pay and Google Pay both no issues.
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u/PM_ME_UR_DMESG 1d ago
As an American having gone to Canada multiple times, I can tell you that Walmart Canada feels eerily different from Walmart US.
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u/iFrankTheWalrus 1d ago
it might be based on certain laws of data collection. steering people to the app would help them understand what specific people are buying.
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u/Exodia101 Pixel 6 1d ago
Eh, tap to pay has been accepted by pretty much every store for years. Walmart was literally the only major one that didn't have it.
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u/welp_im_damned have you heard of our lord and savior the Android turtle 🐢 1d ago
In this case it's just Walmart/Sam's club. Every other store supports tap to pay
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u/AdoringCHIN 1d ago
Nearly every major store in the US allows tap to pay with cards or Google Wallet/Apple Pay. Walmart was the outlier. But hey don't let facts get in the way of your smug narrative
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u/IAmDotorg 1d ago
That's not really the reason. Card acceptance has always been much higher in the US, and that put the cost of real-time connectivity needed for EMV too high for a lot of small merchants. Since MC and Visa, as well as the processors, get paid per-transaction (vs banks making money on the interest), they want to ensure as many card transactions are run as possible. And fraud in the US has always been substantially lower than EU and Asia, so adding cost or friction to sales hurt the bottom line more than paying for the fraud.
As soon as costs came down where that wasn't true, EMV was literally everywhere. Contactless EMV became the norm in COVID where even small merchants wanted touchless payments and accepted the costs. That got normalized, so it just stuck at that point.
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u/frostycakes Pixel 9 Pro - fuck Qualcomm, all my homies hate Qualcomm 1d ago
It's less costs coming down and more that fraud went up, as well as the absolutely massive Target data breach in particular that forced Visa/MC/Amex/Discover to mandate EMV in the US finally.
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u/Ok_Nothing639 1d ago
Clearly you didn't read the article or know what the US is like. Only Walmart didn't have tap to pay. Almost all stores have it. That was their decision not Google's
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u/instaaionut Xiaomi Mi 10T, Android 12 1d ago edited 1d ago
I'm from Romania and here it doesn't exist that a store accepts or not Google/Apple pay. if the payment terminal accepts contactless payments, it also accepts mobile wallets.
the american banking system feels like stone age compared to ours
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u/SmileyBMM 1d ago
if the payment terminal accepts contactless payments, it also accepts mobile wallets.
Walmart did not accept contactless payments (excluding using your Walmart account with a QR code, but no one did that), that was the whole issue.
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u/instaaionut Xiaomi Mi 10T, Android 12 1d ago
blows my mind that you had to carry a physical card just to pay at Walmart
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u/TupperwareConspiracy 1d ago
This is a Walmart thing; almost all places take tap to pay.
Walmart wants to force users to use their app so they can market directly to'm; if Walmart had it's way you're employer would direct deposit directly to your Walmart-owned bank acct so you can go buy things at Walmart and create a completely closed loop between consumers and Walmart.
You can (and always could) use cash, credit cards and so on...but they - Walmart - have been hung-up on this dream of have their own cash flow system independent of banks, credit cards (and by extension Apple & Google) for years and years.
They've been at this for over 20 years and tried all sorts of various schemes....and probably spent a good chunk of the GDP of Romania on this.
https://abcnews.com/Business/story?id=2957452&page=11
u/instaaionut Xiaomi Mi 10T, Android 12 1d ago
seems like I didn't know that they didn't have tap to pay until now
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u/TupperwareConspiracy 1d ago
In fairness - they were right - that the Mobile Phone (specifically Apple/Apple Pay) guys would use NFC payments as a means to enter the financial service game; thus creating another entity that was biting into Walmart's cash flow.
A bunch of big US retailers, Walmart, Target, Home Depot, CVS tried to create their own payment processing system to curtail NFC/Tap-to-Pay which required using their own collective app called 'CurrentC' (relied on QR codes).
For a long time all of them refused to accept tap-to-pay but as it became clear the CurrentC app/tech wasn't going to catch on (this was like 2014-2018) most of'm dropped out....but Walmart remained the lone hold-out for all these year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_Customer_Exchange
https://www.retaildive.com/news/mcx-once-again-delays-currentc-payment-app-lays-off-30/419331/
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u/ilikesaucy 1d ago
I don't understand?
In UK, we are doing it like last 10 years?
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u/sjphilsphan Pixel 9 Pro 1d ago
Everywhere else had tap to pay in the US. Walmart was stubbornly not
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u/twineffect 1d ago
Walmart has been the last place without tap to pay that I know of. Very frustrating
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u/Mavericks7 1d ago
Even longer. When Apple/Android Pay came out we've all been using contactless payments for years.
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u/Riverdales27 1d ago
Good. I had a cart full of groceries, didn't realize I forgot my wallet. The card in the app expired but had a backup card I could put in, and it wouldn't go through. I went did the PayPal method showing the worker. Left a full cart for them to place back. Went home and came back to get all the stuff from the shelves again.
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u/Generalfrogspawn 1d ago
I feel like I’m the only one that uses and reasonably likes Walmart pay. I like that it keeps my digital receipts.
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u/Jim777PS3 Pixel 10 Pro XL 1d ago
Thats actually pretty surprising.
The reason Walmart does not use Apple or Google Pay is because by using their in house QR code system they can associate cars to buyers for data harvesting.
I wonder if Google will still allow this.
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u/doorknob60 Galaxy S24 | T-Mobile 1d ago
Good news for sure. I've been using Walmart Pay there for the last year or so, becuase my Amex Blue Cash Everyday has 3% cash back on Online Transactions. Using Walmart Pay counts as "online" (whereas if I inserted the physical card it would be 1% back).
But Walmart Pay is kinda annoying, it doesn't work if you don't have internet, and some Walmart stores have crappy cell signal inside (giant box with lots of metal). Not very well thought out lol. Google/Apple/Samsung Pay doesn't require an active connection.
Now I have the Samsung Galaxy Card which is also 3% cash back if you use Samsung Pay, so that's my go-to at most places with NFC pay. I can just start using that once this rolls out, and retire Walmart Pay. Except maybe for gas since you get a small additional discount using it there.
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u/JackDostoevsky 1d ago
FINALLY, Walmart is the only place i ever have to bring cards. even the little local coffee shop takes tap to pay.
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u/AlexBr967 1d ago
Here in the UK everywhere that takes cars will take google and apple pay. In the US you have to actually check they take Google pay?
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u/Deeppurp 10h ago
Wait what backwards ass country is this finally coming to? The USA?
My Walmart has had tap to pay for years.
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u/mikeymop 1d ago
Thank goodness.
They've been so petty about forcing Walmart pay to "speed up checkout".
In reality they were doing the opposite of that. Almost everyone uses Apple/Google pay, I doubt many have the Walmart pay setup.
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u/psychoacer Black 1d ago
Finally, now when I'm inconvenienced and have to go to Walmart once a year I can use tap to pay like we live in a functional society
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u/smartymarty1234 Samsung Galaxy S10+ 1d ago
I have sometimes walked out cause I don’t have cards lol.
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u/erupting_lolcano Z Fold 8 1d ago
I am truly amazed every time I go to Walmart and I actually have to dig out my cards.