The smartphone that did not make me look so smart
First try was at the pharmacy. I wanted to use the UOB card, so I whipped out the UOB Mighty App and tried to make a payment. “Present card to cashier”, came the error code. And I fumbled, flustered as I opened my wallet and passed my UOB credit card to the cashier. She took the card and pressed it against the PayWave reader to process the transaction instead. Ok, I was not successful on my first attempt. Will try again at the next store.
Next up was my favourite clothes store, Uniqlo. I whipped out my Galaxy Edge, quickly drew out my virtual Citibank card and tapped it on the PayWave reader. “Unable to read” or some error message to that effect appeared. I insisted on trying again, only to encounter the same error. By then, the person lining up behind me was making irate noises. The kind cashier then noted that I had a metallic phone casing on, and suggested that I removed it before trying again. It finally worked! Yay! But it was quite troublesome to remove my phone’s casing in order to pay.
I left the missus to do her own shopping while I went to a café to get a sandwich, which cost less than S$10. I left my wallet in her bag this time, thinking I could pay with my smartphone. To my dismay, a sign there read, “Credit card above S$10 only.” Guess not buying a sandwich there, then.
I returned to meet the missus, and off we went to the supermarket, where we decided to use the self check-out counter to pay for our groceries. At the counter, both your hands are needed to scan the groceries and place them into bags. When it was time to pay, I took my smartphone out and removed the cover to get ready to pay, when the missus said, “Hey you forgot to swipe your membership card to get points!”
“Arrgh,” I muttered as I pulled out my wallet. In my haste, my unprotected smartphone fell out of my hand and smacked the counter with a painful clatter. Upon checking that there were no scratches, I took out my Plus! Membership card to swipe at the terminal. Once that was done, I took my smartphone and paid with it via PayWave, successfully doing so the second time that day.
The missus commented, “You know, the last time you paid was just by pulling out two cards, the Plus! Membership and your OCBC card. Simple as that. Now you need an extra hand to help handle your phone to pay!”
For the shopping mall visit, I clocked two successful smartphone PayWave transactions, one failed one and one where I was unable to pay with the minimum spending limit. Collateral damage for trying something new: my smartphone which was unprotected when it took the hit. As Mastercard would say, “Priceless!”
Android Pay – so what?
So much for a hassle-free experience. Maybe juggling with my wallet, my smartphone and its casing is something I will get used to in time.
But when Android Pay came out boasting of its features, I said, so what? It is fun to use a phone to pay, but too troublesome for it to be convenient. Can I say I enjoyed the experience so far? Not really. Smartphone makers need to realise that many of us protect our phones with phone covers or casings, and it would be troublesome for us to pay if NFC signals fail to pass through them.
And mobile payment companies need to realize that payments need to integrate with loyalty cards. In an age where merchants have their own in-house loyalty cards which need to be presented before obtaining discount privileges, having a smartphone to replace a credit card just isn’t enough.
So onwards to the future, or shall I say, let’s wait for another day before innovation truly changes the way I pay. For now, I am contented to have a fat wallet filled with cards.
沒有使我看上去很聰明的智慧手機第一次嘗試是在那家藥店。我想要使用大華銀行卡,於是抽出大華銀行的強大應用程式試圖進行付款。"出示卡出納",來了的錯誤代碼。我摸索著,氣急敗壞,打開我的錢包我大華銀行的信用卡交給收銀員。她拿了卡,它緊貼著 PayWave 讀者轉而處理該事務。好吧,我不是成功我第一次嘗試。將在下一家商店試一次。第二件是我最喜歡的衣服的商店,優衣庫。我掏出我的星系邊緣、 快速拔出我虛擬的花旗銀行卡、 敲 PayWave 讀者。無法讀取"或對此有些錯誤訊息出現。我堅持要再試一次只遇到了同樣的錯誤。到那時,在我後面排隊的人發出憤怒的聲音。善良的收銀員接著指出,我對金屬手機外殼,並建議我將其刪除後再試。終於成功了 !耶 !但它卻相當麻煩,去除我手機外殼以支付。我離開太太做她自己購物時去了一間咖啡廳給弄個三明治,成本低於 S$ 10。我把錢包忘在她包裡這一次,想我可以用我的智慧手機支付。令我沮喪的是,那裡的告示,"信用卡 S$ 10 只以上"。不買一塊三明治,然後猜一猜。I returned to meet the missus, and off we went to the supermarket, where we decided to use the self check-out counter to pay for our groceries. At the counter, both your hands are needed to scan the groceries and place them into bags. When it was time to pay, I took my smartphone out and removed the cover to get ready to pay, when the missus said, “Hey you forgot to swipe your membership card to get points!”“Arrgh,” I muttered as I pulled out my wallet. In my haste, my unprotected smartphone fell out of my hand and smacked the counter with a painful clatter. Upon checking that there were no scratches, I took out my Plus! Membership card to swipe at the terminal. Once that was done, I took my smartphone and paid with it via PayWave, successfully doing so the second time that day.The missus commented, “You know, the last time you paid was just by pulling out two cards, the Plus! Membership and your OCBC card. Simple as that. Now you need an extra hand to help handle your phone to pay!”For the shopping mall visit, I clocked two successful smartphone PayWave transactions, one failed one and one where I was unable to pay with the minimum spending limit. Collateral damage for trying something new: my smartphone which was unprotected when it took the hit. As Mastercard would say, “Priceless!”Android Pay – so what?So much for a hassle-free experience. Maybe juggling with my wallet, my smartphone and its casing is something I will get used to in time.But when Android Pay came out boasting of its features, I said, so what? It is fun to use a phone to pay, but too troublesome for it to be convenient. Can I say I enjoyed the experience so far? Not really. Smartphone makers need to realise that many of us protect our phones with phone covers or casings, and it would be troublesome for us to pay if NFC signals fail to pass through them.And mobile payment companies need to realize that payments need to integrate with loyalty cards. In an age where merchants have their own in-house loyalty cards which need to be presented before obtaining discount privileges, having a smartphone to replace a credit card just isn’t enough.So onwards to the future, or shall I say, let’s wait for another day before innovation truly changes the way I pay. For now, I am contented to have a fat wallet filled with cards.
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