ISIS Mobile Wallet, The Service Nobody Wanted, Launches Nationwide

Paying with your phone at checkout is still a very niche thing to do. Outside of mobile junkies and the tech crowd, credit cards and cash are still the defacto standard. But today, the ISIS super group of countless retailers and carriers are announcing their multi-year project is finally ready for the nationwide spotlight. SO how’s it different than the NFC/Digital wallet junkie’s favorite, Google Wallet?

For starters, ISIS is kicking off the launch and trying to build interest with a ton of promotions such as three free drinks at select vending machines (MyCoke Rewards) as well as a 20 percent discount for American Express Serve customers. Jamaba juice is on board in a big way with their lofty offer of 1 million free smoothies to ISIS users. Similar to Google Wallet, loyalty cards are supported though at this time only by establishments specifically partnering with ISIS. Translation: limited support.

Unlike Google Wallet, ISIS requires a special NFC SIM card and won’t “just work” off of the NFC already built-in to many phones on the market. (Google Wallet did require a special “secure element” in the phone’s hardware for NFC payments – a pro/con depending on how you look at it.) Also unlike Google Wallet, ISIS currently only supports a very select few credit cards, namely Chase and American Express. According to ISIS, the additional cards such as Visa and Mastercard under Barclayscards that worked during ISIS testing over the last year are still supported despite no mention of those cards specifically on the website. (Specific mentioning of American Express and Chase is listed, hence the oddity.) Debit card support is also nowhere to be found, natively at least.

According to numerous comments in the Google Play store for the ISIS mobile app, it would seem that Barsclaycards are in fact not supported as numerous people aren’t able to add their cards. Could it be that ISIS considers “support” for non-AMEX/Chase cards as creating an AMerican Express Serve (a pre-paid card, basically) account and then adding money to it via your credit card that isn’t ISIS ready? If it is, that’s hardly the level of “support” we’d call adequate and really, a poor offering all around. AmeEx Serve cards charges fees…fees to use your own money no less. One option is to tie a bank account to it but then the perks and rewards aren’t accessible. Either way, reviews on Google Play are mostly negative with a few reviews here and there giving the app/service perfect reviews.

One other annoyance: no-go for rooted users. The app alerts rooted users to the nature of their device and then quits. (Look for a rooted workaround in the not too distant future.) Google Wallet has a similar block and similar workaround already in place.

A few choice reviews that sum up the service:

Corey Smith

AT&T blocks Google Wallet in favor of this half-finished crap. Will not work with a rooted phone, only works with American Express cards on my S4. I would rather be using Google Wallet, but AT&T won’t let me.

Dominic Lucia

hateful carrier bullying thanks for locking me out of a useful app (Google Wallet) because your sh*tty “me too” wallet system wouldn’t be used otherwise. Looks to me like it’s still not being used, so now NOBODY GETS TO PLAY.

Eric Ware

Was so excited to finally be able to use my NFC! Upon installation of the app I was very disappointed to see the only supported cards are Amex and Chase bank. Unfortunately I don’t bank with Chase and because I use another Amex re-loadable product (Bluebird) I’m unable to register for Amex Serve (which costs $1 per month by the way). I really with these networks would just unlock the google wallet functionality and be done with it.

Robert Marino

Garbage Verizon blocks Google Wallet, then, a year later, rolls this out – and it’s nothing compared to Google Wallet. If you’re going to stop your customers from using features of their phone, you better have a pretty good replacement – because there are plenty of replacements for Verizon out there…

Colin Heichman

Sad, broken. Google wallet wannabe Verizon illegally blocks Google wallet from running on Verizon phones. It’s because they want you to run this garbage, which has less functionality and limited credit card capability. But they get a cut off of Isis. It’s anti-competitive and just slimy. Hopefully the FCC complaints and the upcoming lawsuit will force VZW to act in a moral fashion. Google could help us to but won’t Google could simply bar their OS to be used on scum carriers that won’t allow the full suite. They won’t, but could.

Keep in mind that not all of the negative reviews are based off of the newest app release which did close up a lot of bugs from testing over the last year. That said, the service itself still has a long way to go to come close to Google Wallet in terms of features and functionality, not to mention support.

Because of the sheer number of companies and players involved with ISIS, it’s hard for any type of big launch to not be chaotic with misinformation everywhere. But let’s be real, from a consumer perspective, we never wanted nor needed ISIS. The carriers and their greed wanted ISIS because they couldn’t phathom not getting a piece of the pie. (And sadly for some cusomters, their carrier went and illegally blocked a legitimate competitor like Google Wallet.)

The act of paying with your phone vs. swiping a normal card or cash is still a niche thing to do. Google Wallet would no doubt be further along than it is if it weren’t blocked by carriers for arbitrary and wholly made up reasons. Still, even with carrier backing is paying with your phone enough of a change/convience increase to, at this point anyway, get in bed with American Express or Chase just to do it?