I’ve the past few months I’ve spotted a few people in shops trying out mobile Android/Apple pay for the first time, see the card on the screen and turn the phone over to show the picture of the card to the card reader only for it to be not read and then struggle the payment.
On one occasion I explained that the sensor is on the back of the phone and one they place that next to the payment device it works. At the start of the week I was in Belgium and saw the person in front of me do the same and then their friend paid with their card. (I don’t speak the language so wasn’t sure about how to start the conversation to explain especially with kids in tow).
Any ideas why people do this? I suspect it could put people off mobile payments without that knowledge about where the sensor is.
How do you know it’s the first time? Certainly on the iPhone the antenna is staying enough that sometimes I pay before I could approach the reader with the phone. Holding it the “wrong way around” shouldn’t cause a decline.
But to answer your question I think it’s instinct to “tap the card”
Anarchist
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I’ve done this a few times depending on the position of the reader and which hand my phone is in. Never had a decline because of it.
Some readers seem to work from about 5cm, though it might depend on the phone. My iPhone 11 had to almost touch the reader sometimes, while my iPhone 13 just needs to be in the same room (slight exaggeration).
And the Apple Watch always has the screen facing the reader…obvs.
Edit: Just found this website which seems to suggest that the nfc antenna could be at the bottom of the phone (depending on model).
It’s not a decline, the card reader doesn’t see that card is there. Could be Android in all cases I’ve seen have paid enough attention.
On the occasion I spoke with the person they specifically mentioned that it was the first time that they were trying it out to catch up with the younger folk. They were an older person.
The other ones in Belgium would have been around 20.
Some Greek supermarkets have these weird readers where the tap area is on the side of the device, and you can’t see it or know it unless they tell you/show where to tap the card.
More than once I looked like a knob tapping my phone on the top of the screen this way and that!
For my phone (S22 Ultra), the NFC antenna seems to be on the back on the top half of the phone.
On my Galaxy Watch 5 (seeing as someone mentioned it), it seems to be at the top part of the bezel, so there is no need to twist my arm 180 degrees to show the screen to the device.
This type of reader is quite common to see in Austria when I’m there too. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of these in the UK though, but even so I’d still be holding the back of my phone against the reader not the front.
The card reader with the NFC on the left side is common in Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, and female based on my travels. It’s also got high sides to make it hard for people to see the PIN entry.
