NFC Pulling into Bay Area Chevron Stations (Oct. 6, 2015)
Mobile payments’ drive into the fuel station sector continues, with Visa Inc. announcing a new NFC pilot at more than 20 Chevron stations around San Francisco and Silicon Valley. Under the initiative, which will launch later this fall, fuel pumps at those stations will accept any NFC payment service, including Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Android Pay. Chevron was a launch partner for Apple Pay and early this year announced plans to support that service at pumps at more than 3,000 U.S. locations. The company already accepts Apple Pay at many of its Extra Mile and Texaco convenience stores. Under the new program, all NFC transactions will be protected by Visa Token Service. With a reported 80 percent of Chevron customers paying with a credit or debit card, mobile payments seem to be a natural fit for the fuel giant.
“Mobile payments are moving into the mainstream in the U.S. because, more and more, consumers see the value of using their personal devices to purchase everyday items like groceries and gas,” said Jim McCarthy, executive vice president of innovation and strategic partnerships, Visa. Along with Chevron, other fuel providers have begun experimenting with mobile payments at the pump—including Shell, which earlier this year partnered with PayPal to launch Fill Up & Go, a payment app enabling drivers in the U.K. to pay for gas via QR code at more than 1,000 petrol stations. PayPal teamed with Cumberland Farms on a similar initiative in the U.S. in 2012.
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