Apple Pay could make everyone's mobile wallet purchases cheaper

Have you stopped to consider what impact Apple Pay will have on the credit card industry? Don't worry, we hadn't either, but Bank Innovation believe that the service might just send mobile payments mainstream. Currently, tapping your phone on a reader incurs a transaction fee of 2.75 percent, far higher than the 1.5 percent that's imposed when you swipe a card. Because the issuing bank's card isn't there, there's a greater risk of fraud that banks multinational financial services corporations like Visa and MasterCard then have to shoulder. According to the report, however, the biometric security in the new iPhones might have convinced both institutions that mobile payments aren't a huge risk anymore. The site goes further, to suggest that both will create a "Cardholder Present" transaction fee which either matches the card rate, or is close enough to mean that you won't be pulling out a calculator to work out if it's cheaper to use your phone or card to buy subway tokens. Naturally, both financial institutions have denied that any such discussions are taking place, but hopefully it won't be long before these systems reflect the real world.