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Fitbit Pay not accepted at Target??

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Tried to make my first payment with my Ionic/Fitbit Pay today at Target.  Setting up the card was a breeze.

 

I held in the button on the left of the watch to display my credit card, then held the device next to the payment pad but nothing happened.

 

The lady working the checkout had no experience with contactless payments so she called someone over who told us that they only accept Samsung Pay and Android Pay.  Does this make sense?

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I have only used Samsung Pay. Samsung Pay uses MST which works on the card reader by tricking it into thinking you are actually swiping your card. It is accepted everywhere because no one needs to update their machines to accept it. Others, Fitpay included, use NFC (which Samsung also has but many stores do not). The reader has to be able to accept it. I have used Samsung where it said "Android Pay Apple Pay" only. It worked. I do not think it needs to be a specific type. I have never used Android Pay or any other pay. The companies only advertise that they take Samsung Pay to make themselves appear more up-to-date. I've used my Galaxy S6 everywhere for 2 years, including on machines that looked like they where from the 90s, with absolutely no issue.

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Before I returned the ionic. I used it twice in Mcdonalds. See if yours work there, if it doesn’t then it maybe your watch. If it does work, then it is more Than likely target.

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For what it's worth I've used mine at a vending machine and it took about 5 minutes to take   pretty annoying.  I don't use contactless pay often 

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Does anyone know - do these contactless payment services (Fitbit, Android, Samsung, Apple Pay) all use the same communication standards/protocol or does each payment kiosk need to be specifically programmed to accept each type?

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Mine has worked anywhere that has contactless pay (look for the logo).  The Ionic instructions say it should.  

 

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This logo?

 

314px-Universal_Contactless_Card_Symbol.svg.png

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That's the logo to look for; not everyone has it available and I don't think Target uses this.  I have used my Fitbit Pay successfully at several places; no issues at all.

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The logo is no guarantee it will accept Fitbit Pay, Apple Pay, Google Wallet, etc, etc.

 

Target upgraded to NFC terminals a couple years ago, and promptly disabled the NFC feature. Target is planning to roll out its own mobile payments platform. They aren't the only ones.

 

Essentially, these retailers are tired of paying a fee to VISA and MasterCard, and are working on their own mobile payments solutions starting with MCX Consortium about 3 years ago.

Aria, Fitbit MobileTrack on iOS. Previous: Flex, Force, Surge, Blaze

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FWIW, I did successfully use it today at Fresh Thyme (grocery store).  Thanks everyone for the input.

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I have only used Samsung Pay. Samsung Pay uses MST which works on the card reader by tricking it into thinking you are actually swiping your card. It is accepted everywhere because no one needs to update their machines to accept it. Others, Fitpay included, use NFC (which Samsung also has but many stores do not). The reader has to be able to accept it. I have used Samsung where it said "Android Pay Apple Pay" only. It worked. I do not think it needs to be a specific type. I have never used Android Pay or any other pay. The companies only advertise that they take Samsung Pay to make themselves appear more up-to-date. I've used my Galaxy S6 everywhere for 2 years, including on machines that looked like they where from the 90s, with absolutely no issue.

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Same with Walmart. I use Samsung Pay which makes it a non issue for me as I use the MST but I have had it happen a couple of times during the last couple of years where the walmart terminal read the signal and rejected it. I just tried again. A few days later, Samsung comes out with an update. Everything goes back to normal. I haven't had an issue in months. Publix did it a couple of times as well but I haven't had issues there in several months, maybe even a year.

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@SunsetRunner wrote:

Does anyone know - do these contactless payment services (Fitbit, Android, Samsung, Apple Pay) all use the same communication standards/protocol or does each payment kiosk need to be specifically programmed to accept each type?


They do not leverage the same processes for payment transmission. As stated above, SamsungPay is the mightiest of the bunch, as it uses its proprietary MST. Samsung Pay hits the Mag Stripe Reader (MSR) directly with payment info, effectively mimicking a standard card swipe. As long as the MSR is exposed enough to pick up the MST signal, a payment should pass through the card handling processes. It requires no software enhancement for implementation, just the necessary infrastructure to handle credit, and compatible hardware. It will work on many old POSs but not old gas pumps or any other insertion MSR. It uses NFC as a backup, in case the MST transmission fails for some reason.

Standard NFC payment tools pass track data over via NFC and require both a software and hardware update for integration. ApplePay requires an additional layer of  software integration as it passes an Apple-created token over in lieu of track data (as a security measure) which is translated between the NFC reader and the credit host. That's why some vendors may support NFC, but not Apple Pay. I came here to find out if Fit bit pay was such a method which required an additional layer of integration by vendors. Anybody know?

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Yes, Fitbit Pay requires an additional layer of integration. The big difference in USA is that in Apple Pay has 2000+ cards/banks, Android Pay has 1000+, and Fitbit has about 10. 

Aria, Fitbit MobileTrack on iOS. Previous: Flex, Force, Surge, Blaze

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About 50 banks are supported now

https://www.fitbit.com/fitbit-pay/banks

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