I use Apple Pay mainly for two reasons (US-based):
1) Because rewards programs can be so lucrative per-category, I wind up using like 5 different credit cards constantly. That's too thick to keep in my wallet, so I never bothered before... but now it's effortless on my phone. Now I basically get 3-5% back on most stuff instead of the old 1-2%. It adds up.
2) Chips seem to degrade after a while, as anything contact-based seems finicky. Apple Pay doesn't always work on the first try... but it always works by the second. Which is more than I can say for credit cards, god only knows why.
So now I really just keep one physical credit card on hand -- the one that gives me most rewards dining out, since you need a card to hand them (in the US anyways) -- and to use for the occasional instance a store's terminal doesn't accept Apple Pay (mostly public transit vending machines these days).
> Chips seem to degrade after a while, as anything contact-based seems finicky. Apple Pay doesn't always work on the first try... but it always works by the second. Which is more than I can say for credit cards, god only knows why.
This is the most annoying thing. Chips seem to be much less reliable than the mag stripe and not all systems are NFC. On my daily usage cards in 1/3 of the cases it takes 2-3 tries ( ~30-45 seconds per try ) and in 1/2 of those cases it becomes "Use mag stripe" which takes another 30-45 seconds
Remember when all the cashiers would keep some kind of plastic film or tape nearby to fold your card into so the mag stripe would read? Nobody knew why it worked, but it fixed the problem half the time. But I still remember having to call my credit card company to send me an early replacement about half the time due to a mag stripe that just didn't work anymore.
Chips are just equally bad in their own way. Some machines take an oddly high amount of force to push it in all the way (it feels like it's in earlier but it's not)... and then there's just some kind of wearing down of contact surfaces or something that blocks the connection other times.
It's funny, I never would have expected wireless to be more reliable than physical... but because there are no contacts to wear out, it really is over the long term.
I once killed a card because for some reason i took it into a cave with me. It's not like I dropped it in mud, it looked fine and dry when i got out (it was in the inner pants not in the actual caving suit), but apparently 4 hours in a chilly damp place were enough to kill it.
1) Because rewards programs can be so lucrative per-category, I wind up using like 5 different credit cards constantly. That's too thick to keep in my wallet, so I never bothered before... but now it's effortless on my phone. Now I basically get 3-5% back on most stuff instead of the old 1-2%. It adds up.
2) Chips seem to degrade after a while, as anything contact-based seems finicky. Apple Pay doesn't always work on the first try... but it always works by the second. Which is more than I can say for credit cards, god only knows why.
So now I really just keep one physical credit card on hand -- the one that gives me most rewards dining out, since you need a card to hand them (in the US anyways) -- and to use for the occasional instance a store's terminal doesn't accept Apple Pay (mostly public transit vending machines these days).