I used to think mobile wallets were just a gimmick, but 6 months at a teller window changed my mind.

I worked as a teller at a Chase branch in Phoenix for about two years. For the first year and a half, I thought tap-to-pay on phones was just something tech people did to look cool. Hardly anyone under 30 used it at our drive-through. Then around last December, I started noticing a real shift. Over just a few months, the number of people holding their phone up to the reader went from maybe one person a day to almost half the morning rush. The thing that convinced me was watching a woman pay for her groceries with a cracked phone screen while juggling a toddler. It was faster than fumbling for a card. Now I tell people it's not about being fancy, it's about convenience when your hands are full. Has anyone else seen the numbers jump like that at their branch?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_charlie1mo ago

Take that 7-Eleven story and flip it around though. I've seen way more people fumbling with a wallet while holding a coffee and a kid than I've seen phone failures. The glitchy phone thing happens, but it's getting RARE. Most phones I see nowadays tap almost instantly, way faster than even the best chip card. The real telling moment for me was when a construction worker in dirty gloves tapped his phone on the reader without even taking it out of his pocket. That's when I knew the old ways were dying.

the_avery1mo ago

True, but that guy you saw fumbling with his phone - was his screen actually cracked or was he just panicking? I've noticed when people get flustered they blame the phone when really they just forgot where they put their thumb.

jessica_hall491mo ago

Maybe it's just me but I still don't get the big deal. We had tap to pay on cards for years before phones, and those work fine even with a cracked screen. Plus phones die or get left in the car way more often than a wallet does. I watched a guy at my local 7-Eleven hold up the line for like two minutes trying to get his phone to scan right, and the cashier just handed him the card reader and he finally pulled out his actual card. Not saying it's useless, but half the rush seems high for something that still glitches out on me half the time.