Apple Pay allows 12 cards, on newer devices

[NRB525]

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@mongstradamus wrote:

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@wasCB14 wrote:

What's going on with a phone that the limit can't be 100 cards? How much storage space can a card's info possibly take up?

My Samsung S9+ can handle 10 cards.

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If i were a negative nancy I would say it would be to force people to upgrade to new devices.

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My perception is that the Secure Element that is used to encrypt the specially-generated CC number from the bank, is a hardware feature, a chip, or a specific patch of chip circuitry if part of the CPU.

The Secure Element thus only has a specific amount of space, and wasn't designed for the most active MyFico users, at 100 Credit Cards.

The Secure Element portion of the chip on the iPhone 8 and later, was likely increased by 50% to get to 12.

It is undoubtedly possible to go larger, but as a specific, single-purpose hardware section of the mobile processor, there is a design trade off, and possibly an engineering limitation since the Secure Element must interface with the CPU in some strict methods.

The Passes section uses a screen display of a barcode, rather than NFC, so likely does not need to reside within the Secure Element.

[imaximous]

I don't remember if or when they increased the number of cards you can fit in Apple's Wallet. I typically get every iPhone model that comes out and they've always been full, so I'd delete and add cards frequently. Then I realized that I could have different cards on my Apple watch, so that doubled up the space. I didn't know this because I was always adding cards to my watch immediately after adding to iPhone (you get a prompt to add to watch). I thought both iPhone and Watch had to be synched 🤷🏻‍♂️. Anyway, it's 12 per device, so that took care of the space issue with wallet for me.

[icednightpaper]

This is quite good to know, as I steadily approach that limit. Especially since having 12 usable cards vs not having cards that are "worthless" in Apple Wallet makes a difference. Now if only the US could roll out their readers faster. >_>

[wasCB14]

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@NRB525 wrote:

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@mongstradamus wrote:

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@wasCB14 wrote:

What's going on with a phone that the limit can't be 100 cards? How much storage space can a card's info possibly take up?

My Samsung S9+ can handle 10 cards.

---

If i were a negative nancy I would say it would be to force people to upgrade to new devices.

---

My perception is that the Secure Element that is used to encrypt the specially-generated CC number from the bank, is a hardware feature, a chip, or a specific patch of chip circuitry if part of the CPU.

The Secure Element thus only has a specific amount of space, and wasn't designed for the most active MyFico users, at 100 Credit Cards.

The Secure Element portion of the chip on the iPhone 8 and later, was likely increased by 50% to get to 12.

It is undoubtedly possible to go larger, but as a specific, single-purpose hardware section of the mobile processor, there is a design trade off, and possibly an engineering limitation since the Secure Element must interface with the CPU in some strict methods.

The Passes section uses a screen display of a barcode, rather than NFC, so likely does not need to reside within the Secure Element.

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So after a little research, it looks like the Secure Element is either part of or directly attached to the NFC chip (and separate from iOS). So that would rather limit the size of the chip.

[vpae]

Easy.. between Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, and now LG Pay, just carry a few phones lol