Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile Launch Isis Payment System

No, but I believe it will *WORK* at every location with *contactless* EMV. I don't KNOW. It's just what's implied multiple times by ISIS. Do you have an ISIS device? Try to find somewhere that supports contactless EMV (and it actually WORKS, many places have the PIN pads but it doesn't work) but isn't on the ISIS list and try using ISIS. I BELIEVE it will work. Waiting to hear real world experiences of course. Even then it'll be hard to tell because a lot of times contactless terminals just don't work. McDonald's at the Exxon in Missoula, MT, at least one terminal each at both McDonald's in Great Falls, MT, and some terminals at Home Depot in Kalispell, MT are a few places I can tell you with certainty that it does NOT work even though it should.

PS watch the video on ISIS website it clearly says look for ANY of these icons, and one of them is the contactless EMV icon.

I will try this out. Might take a day or two to find such a location. I just used it at McDonalds and it worked perfectly. Of course, they are on the list.

Awesome, though I'd be surprised if you even could find such a location. Just having the terminal isn't good enough (if ISIS doesn't work try a PayPass/payWave card, I bet it won't either...). The biggest PITA of the whole thing is the number of contactless terminals floating around that DON'T WORK. Sometimes, they've never worked. Others, they were intentionally disabled (Best Buy... I'm looking at you. Best Buy didn't like that contactless debit transactions are charged as credit transactions).

so my verizon galaxy nexus can't use google wallet?

Officially, no. The hardware is there, Verizon blocks the app. I've heard some people have had success installing it from the web at »play.google.com - if that doesn't work, you'll have to search Google. But it CAN be made to work - I saw a guy paying with a Verizon Galaxy Nexus at McDonald's a couple days ago (I know it was Verizon because he sells phone at Costco and I've talked to him a couple times so he said hi in line, nice guy). I shouldn't have said "only works" but rather "only officially works" - most people are suspicious enough, they're not going to hack their phones to get something working on it.

Here's more info: »gigaom.com/2012/10/23/is ··· -austin/

ISIS specifically states that it will work with "any contactless payment display" (obviously referring to contactless EMV, as there's plenty of proprietary non-EMV contactless payment in use in the world, such as Oyster for London Underground). They also state that the reason many merchants on the site have never heard of it is that they're simply using MasterCard's database.

That also implies they're running on the MasterCard network since I'd imagine they have to license that database. A much more user-accessible form of that database is the MasterCard PayPass locator

Yup, ISIS themselves have confirmed in their twitters that it will work as you mentioned... pretty much at all Mastercard Paypass and VISA Paywave stations. I'm trying really hard to rememeber that it's brand new and only out in two test markets but I really think ISIS should be doing a better job in getting this info out to the public. Perhaps they will... perhaps they won't.

I have seen several articles where the media is pointing out that merchants don't even know they can accept ISIS payments or anything about ISIS... even the "ISIS merchants" on ISIS's website. ISIS admits that these merchants are really from a Mastercard database of those that accept Mastercard PayPass payments.

I wonder how ISIS limits this program to Austin and Salt Lake City. I'm guessing the payment systems have the ability to limit the area. I wonder how big "Salt Lake City" is on their map. Per the ISIS website it looks to be the entire valley area, all the way 50 minutes north to Provo. I wonder if perhaps it might be that the secure SIMs are only being given out in these areas but the phones will actually work anyway. Oh.... I'm wonder if that is really the case!

I'm almost positive that's the case. You can only sign up for ISIS in-store in Austin and Salt Lake City. Use it wherever you want at least in the US. I know I *cannot* use Google Wallet in Canada, it gets declined.

Just today at Home Depot I had a VERY curious cashier wondering what I did when I paid with Google Wallet. Even contactless cards are something almost never seen (even most of the few people with them, swipe them). MasterCard made a HUGE contactless push in London for the Olympics. And remember, contactless is a bigger convenience deal there because contact EMV is slightly more difficult than swiping. Of the transactions during the Olympics that COULD be contactless (contactless card and terminal), only 15% WERE.

Austin is a young, tech-centric city. The type of people in Austin are probably far more likely than the average American to want and use this. They're also probably better able to use it without their hands being held - or merchants knowing what it is. As for Salt Lake City, I have no clue why it's a test market. LOL.

Same reason... and I understand people may not realize this. SLC attracts a _lot_ of businesses here for many different reasons... it's cheap, large employee pool that speak different languages, and SLC grew a lot of tech from the dot com era. You have most young people going out on 2 year missions all over the world so they have that experience. In the dot com era many businesses moved to SLC as it was cheaper than CA. So SLC built up the infrastructure (heck, even the NSA likes SLC ).

Except my phone isn't rooted...

But Google Wallet uses your credit card. It is simply a gateway that serves as a middle man, so all the credit card security is still there. Google charges a virtual Google Mastercard for your transaction, then charges the credit card you have on file afterwards. So it is just another credit card transaction that shows up on your credit card bill. Unless your bank has specifically stated that they do not insure this type of transaction it is covered like everything else. There is no reason for them to differentiate this credit card transaction from any other credit card transaction unless they have put a system in place specifically to do so and clarified it with the customer. Otherwise, they wouldn't even know it was done with Google Wallet (aside from the name Google Wallet in the transaction, which they would actually have to look at your bill to see).

There is no personal banking info stored on your device. The only info is that of the Google virtual Mastercard, so it is not susceptible to attacks, at least not those that aim to obtain your personal information. And the idea of not having to enter a PIN is great, until you lose your phone... although again it would be covered like anything else. The only glitch is that you may have to report the card as stolen with the bank rather than the phone. This wouldn't really be necessary if you catch it quickly, however, as Google Wallet can be disabled remotely.

Final point, Verizon has taken measures to have Google Wallet blocked from the market in an effort to be anti-competitive by forcing the user to use their product. For this reason, I will never use ISIS, as I am not open to the idea of being a puppet that is manipulated by a greedy corporation.

@tcope, it's been awhile but I've learned a bit more about this system. Due to the inability of most merchant acquirers to handle EMV at this time, the contactless payment cards in use today actually all (including these mobile wallets for their virtual card) contain a copy of magnetic stripe data to use. Yes, completely insecure magnetic stripe data. Contactless never used to scare me, on the logic that if it was intercepted, you basically got one transaction out of it. Still semi-true because it actually uses a temporary verification code instead of the real one. But you can get a real account number and expiry date from skimming these cards (obviously the mobile wallet is much harder). That's scary. Thank goodness for zero fraud liability in the US - but I sure wouldn't want to use a PayPass/PayWave card in another country...