Hey andrewtho, totally agree with what you have mentioned above.

However, have you considered that there might be "controls" that the store have put in place before they even enable the "Sale" mode on the EDC/Card Terminal? Controls like only enabling it once they are satisfied that you won't be able to sneakily use a payment method they wont allow (e.g. making sure that you have kept your phone away and took out your physical card).

Not directly related to the case above, I have personally met merchants who will only accept MyDebit Debit Cards (won't take BigPay prepaid card because those do not get processed over MyDebit) EVEN THOUGH their Card Terminal and Merchant Service Provider could potentially process all variants of Visa/MasterCards ("potentially" because they will only allow MyDebit so I can't try out cards other than MyDebit).

The point I wanted to drive home is that, "Capability" does not equate to "Acceptance". Won't shock me if there are some merchants who can accept AMEX (Capability), ACTIVELY discourage/prohibits their users from paying with AMEX (Acceptance) just to save on the MDR.

just echo-ing to the recent comments, i'll always mention ''wave" when making payments via apple pay... coz there are still many cashiers who are not aware of this and will just answer 'cant'....

This post has been edited by vinoth: Jan 17 2023, 04:27 PM

Never have I once used the term "Apple Pay" when checking-out, anywhere in the world that I have been to.

I always tell them that I want to pay via "Card Payment" so that they enable the Sale mode on the Card Terminal which gives me the flexibility to choose how I wanted to pay (Chip & Pin, Physical Contactless, or best of all Apple Pay). Don't think I have ever been in a situation where I can't use Contactless Payment (physical or Apple Pay) if I were to tell them Card Payment.

Indeed. I went to Brands Outlet @ Pavillion BJalil and they say AP cannot use when the cashier saw me launching AP on my Watch.

Anyone got the same experience @ BO Pav BJ?

When?
Last Saturday Padini IOI Puchong told me Dec 2022 their management inform them start accept Apple Pay already
I assume BO same cause same management right

Last Sunday, 15 Jan 23

just hoping more bank support debit, not only credit card.

Apparently Touch N Go prepaid is finally launching, hoping that they’ll allow it to be added to AP but considering their track record.. :/

same goes to me yesterday at ioi city, sunway brands outlet.

the cashier told applepay not accepted.

Perhaps BO different decision…

Padini @ QB Penang doesn't accept apple pay as well, as of end of last month.

Just say/ask for "wave" and wave the phone on the NFC reader when the cashier finished set it up

Never failed so far.

Though I'm curious if there's failed case, after reading few replies above. Anyone?

That day went to Secret recipe at Aeon, the staff not aware of it when I mentioned Apple Pay.

He thought it is some kind of QR pay and ask me to scan, then I mentioned it is kind of cc pay with wave, then he say ok let's try. He didn't know can or not also, but eventually payment successfully.

So there's still plenty of places not aware of this pay.

Nah, they won’t. Don’t think about it

Agree on the above. So far all issuers except one opted to only offer Apple Pay to Credit Card users.

I suppose this may have something to do with the economics of allowing Apple Pay (IIRC rumour has it that for Credit Cards the fee to issuer is ~0.15% whereas for Debit Cards it might be a fixed fee). With a relatively low and decreasing Card Interchange (CC: ~0.5%, DC/PC: varies by amount but overall ~0.1%) percentage for banks, the fee they have to pay to Apple is significant. I have no inside info but I reckon Maybank might be making nothing or even a loss for allowing Apple Pay for Debit Card users.

However, I still hope that BigPay will support Apple Pay soon so that I don’t have to carry 1 extra card while travelling.

Imagine going to Apple's website and seeing your company's logo/name is listed there.
It's all about image and increasing user base I believe. You give a user more features, the more users will flock to you.

For instance,
Why ppl use TnG eWallet? because they are the easiest for any Tom, Dick and Harry to create a merchant account + 0% MDR up to X amount. More TnG QR around, more users are "forced" to have/use TnG eWallet.
Why ppl use GrabPay wallet? because the incentive is points which you can use it for anything.
Grab and TnG may lose money along the way but they can attract more users to be on their platform and they are looking at the long term result.

No doubt that being part of something big/in-demand like Apple Pay would provide intangible benefits that is beyond dollar and cents.

However, most banks are profit-seeking businesses afterall. If supporting Apple Pay by itself (purely financials) is loss-making, banks won't be keen in adopting it UNLESS they are able to make money elsewhere by implementing Apple Pay. For example, a bank may use Apple Pay as a Brand Awareness / Differentiating factor to draw in customers to their CC/DC products which may be loss-making, however, if enough customers signs up for auxiliary services such as Balance Transfers or even other higher-margins products such as Personal Loans, net-net they could at least break-even or even generate higher profits.

You made a very important point on TnG eWallet & GrabPay. However do consider that these 2 eWallets are start-ups / emerging companies where investors would overlook their short-term financials so long they provide future upsides. However, no investors would allow their portfolio companies to just keep burning cash with no feasible plans to stop the cash burn, afterall, cashflow and profits are paramount for most businesses.

Back in the days (~5 years ago) when GrabPay just released, IIRC Grab Platinum customers get 20x points for RM1 spent on GrabPay, however fast forward to today, you are only getting 0.75x points for RM1 spent. This is a massive change which has allowed Grab to stop their cash-burn drastically once they have achieved the scale they need.

If a ficticious bank, XYZ Bank, offered Apple Pay for both CC & DC users initially and decided to stop supporting Apple Pay for DC users citing unprofitability for doing so (and after onboarding sufficient no. of CASA users they targeted). Just for a second imagine how big of a backlash the bank would receive from such an action.

Therefore, banks have to play it safe by only releasing products that they believe could be sustained for a foreseeable future. I very much hope that the rest of the participating banks support Apple Pay for Debit Cards as well, however this would only happen if the banks are convinced it makes economic sense.

TLDR:
1. Economics trumps almost everything in business.
2. Users do are not as forgiving towards Financial Institutions as compared to that of a Start-Up.

But I don’t get it is why other country most of their bank do support debit card, but not in Malaysia. EG. Singapore’s HSBC. It zit not enough people use ap in Malaysia?

Maybe many cheapskate here?

I had been to London, 99% of the time I can pay with card. Their bus, train system even can accept visa & mastercard.
So the society accept card like cash.

But you see many merchants here ask for cash only and you can't use visa & mastercard to pay for bus or toll.