Apple gives 2M more consumers access to Apple Pay with new credit union partnerships
Eight new financial institutions have officially joined Apple's nascent mobile payments initiative, bringing the total number of participating banks and credit unions to 39 less than three months after the service's debut.
Leading the list of new partners is Security Service Federal Credit Union, one of the largest credit unions in the United States. Originally formed to serve members of the U.S. Air Force Security Service, SSFCU now counts some 925,000 members across Texas, Colorado, and Utah with more than $8 billion in assets.
Also joining are Partners Federal Credit Union -- which serves nearly 100,000 Walt Disney Company employees, cast members, and their families --?Consumers Credit Union, Virginia Credit Union, Cyprus Federal Credit Union, Fairwinds Credit Union, Mountain America Credit Union, and regional bank Customers Bank.
Together, the new partners could bring as many as 2 million more customers into the Apple Pay fold.
Major credit unions have been slow to sign on with Apple Pay, though credit unions do make up nearly half of the service's participating financial institutions. SSFCU and Navy Federal are the only two Apple Pay participants that are among the top 10 credit unions nationwide by either members or assets.
The picture is much different when it comes to banks. Only two of the top 10 banks in the U.S. --?Bank of New York Mellon and HSBC --?have chosen not to sign on, though both institutions have minimal retail banking presence in the country.
Apple Pay has steadily grown since its rollout in October of last year, accounting for 1% of all digital payments in November. The company is believed to be planning a worldwide expansion, likely to be based in its offices in London.
Leading the list of new partners is Security Service Federal Credit Union, one of the largest credit unions in the United States. Originally formed to serve members of the U.S. Air Force Security Service, SSFCU now counts some 925,000 members across Texas, Colorado, and Utah with more than $8 billion in assets.
Also joining are Partners Federal Credit Union -- which serves nearly 100,000 Walt Disney Company employees, cast members, and their families --?Consumers Credit Union, Virginia Credit Union, Cyprus Federal Credit Union, Fairwinds Credit Union, Mountain America Credit Union, and regional bank Customers Bank.
Together, the new partners could bring as many as 2 million more customers into the Apple Pay fold.
Major credit unions have been slow to sign on with Apple Pay, though credit unions do make up nearly half of the service's participating financial institutions. SSFCU and Navy Federal are the only two Apple Pay participants that are among the top 10 credit unions nationwide by either members or assets.
The picture is much different when it comes to banks. Only two of the top 10 banks in the U.S. --?Bank of New York Mellon and HSBC --?have chosen not to sign on, though both institutions have minimal retail banking presence in the country.
Apple Pay has steadily grown since its rollout in October of last year, accounting for 1% of all digital payments in November. The company is believed to be planning a worldwide expansion, likely to be based in its offices in London.
Comments
Would love for Target credit and debit cards to join.
The primary places I shop, Meijer (Gas and Grocery), Panera Bread, Walgreens, McDonalds, etc all support NFC and Apple Pay.. (Meijer un-official, but says they won't block it)
I have a Walmart across from Meijer, but I can tell you I'm now much less likely to head there now.
How does Apple Pay work at the McDonald's drive through? Do they bring out an NFC handheld?
How do you know where you can use it, besides what you read in the news? I just picked up an iPhone 6 and not sure who takes it, so still on debit card method of payment. Does Costco use it? What are the visual cues for where you can use it?
Ok now we just need more retailers to support NFC. I wish there was something Apple could do to speed up NFC adoption.
What will speed it up is the law that mandates that by the end of 2015 ALL credit card readers in the United States have to be changed to those compatible with RFID Credit Cards that are being sent out by every bank and credit card company in the U.S. [which is the standard already in the world]. These new credit card readers will be NFC compatible [if the merchant is smart for future compatibility].
The primary places I shop, Meijer (Gas and Grocery), Panera Bread, Walgreens, McDonalds, etc all support NFC and Apple Pay.. (Meijer un-official, but says they won't block it)
Meijer is actually listed on the main Apple Pay website: https://www.apple.com/apple-pay/
Would love for Target credit and debit cards to join.
Even though Target stores are the proverbial poster children for NFC payments, they still seem hellbent on going the CurrentC route. Mostly because they are addicted to tracking and aggregating people's buying habits and Apple Pay could reduce their ability to do that.
How does Apple Pay work at the McDonald's drive through? Do they bring out an NFC handheld?
I think they have NFC-equipped POS terminals, the same ones you'd use if you didn't have an iPhone 6 but had an NFC-equipped charge card (like Chase Slate Visa).
Remember, Apple Pay leverages NFC wireless payment infrastructure that has been around for several years here in the U.S.A. Apple wisely did not attempt to re-invent the wheel.
First there is no law, it is a requirement by the credit card issuers to move to a new standard. Second, there is no requirement to change to more secure readers. What changes is a shift in liability from the card issuers (VISA/Mastercard) to the banks and merchants, meaning that banks and merchants will be liable for fraudulent purchases. A reader with a chip and pin system is thought to be more resistant to fraudulent purchases, but they can be hacked as well.
Discover?
Discover is late to the party because they pulled the plug on their NFC payment experiment. They ran some trials, but it was never fully deployed, they just gave up on it, unlike the other major credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, American Express) who have been involved in NFC wireless payment systems for years.
I suggest you contact Discover about when/if they intend to deploy NFC wireless transactions at all. Like the Visa credit card affiliated with my credit union, Discover is just a dumb slab of plastic right now.
Yes, just say you pay by phone and they pull out the whole credit card terminal.
Maybe Apple could give away NFC terminals to these retailers with the little "?Pay" logo on them.
I was at Walgreens yesterday and noticed one of these. Looked really snazzy.
How does Apple Pay work at the McDonald's drive through? Do they bring out an NFC handheld?
I used Apple Pay at the local McDonald's. The drive-through has the same NFC-enabled card swipe machine that you would use when you eat inside. They simply hold the reader out the drive-through window for you to use Apple Pay.
My local Panera is experimenting with ?Pay at the registers. I've used the Panera App to pay with ?Pay, but NFC support at the counter is something new. Only one register was setup for NFC payment so far and it wasn't staffed when I was there for lunch. Maybe next time...
Maybe Apple could give away NFC terminals to these retailers with the little "?Pay" logo on them.
I was at Walgreens yesterday and noticed one of these. Looked really snazzy.
Meijer is actually listed on the main Apple Pay website: https://www.apple.com/apple-pay/
Even though Target stores are the proverbial poster children for NFC payments, they still seem hellbent on going the CurrentC route. Mostly because they are addicted to tracking and aggregating people's buying habits and Apple Pay could reduce their ability to do that.
I have a friend that works in Target Corp's I.T. department and they are currently working on supporting Apple Pay. He told me that they had a team working on a secret project since about September and they recently told the whole I.T. team that they were laying the plans to support Apple Pay. While they intend to support it soon they simply don't have NFC equipped credit card readers in all of their stores and it will take some time to upgrade all the stores and their systems. They also need to go through an internal testing phase where only employees will use it.
While I don't know anyone that works in Target's financial division it's also pretty clear that they would also wait to roll out Apple Pay until their Red Cards support it and they're able to track customer purchases that way.
In regards to Target adopting CurrentC, my friend told me that they've been completely reexamining adopting CurrentC since they payment system was hacked in October. While Target has had employees testing CurrentC in stores we're probably more likely to see Apple Pay rolled out first. Target took a lot of heat for their hack last year, with their CEO resigning and a significant sales decline, they're approaching mobile payments very carefully.
Maybe Apple could give away NFC terminals to these retailers with the little "?Pay" logo on them.
I was at Walgreens yesterday and noticed one of these. Looked really snazzy.
As an Apple shareholder, I don't see why Apple should subsidize deployment of merchant POS terminals to support Apple Pay.
As mentioned by donarb above, there is a liability shift later this year: most retailers will be upgrading their POS terminals in the near future anyhow (if they haven't already done so) to support the new chip-and-sign cards that are being deployed currently to consumers.
2) Who are the people that still want to believe that ?Pay isn't a success.
Would love for Target credit and debit cards to join.
Not sure that will happen, I wrote about this before. The last time I went to target they offered my 5% on all future purchases at Target if I use the Target card to purchase the items. If Target is willing to offer a 5% saving not to use another CC I am now seriously considering it.
The the only reason I us a CC as much is due to the fact most all merchants factor in the fees they pay to CC companies on everything they sell. Very few will give you a discount for using Cash or a discount for using their cards. Macy some time will not give you the extra sales discount if you use a card other than theirs so I carry a Macy card around.
If more retails will knock off 5% i am in for using their card. Walmart is doing something but they give you store credit to be used only at their store which is no value to me.
Maybe Apple could give away NFC terminals to these retailers with the little "?Pay" logo on them.
I was at Walgreens yesterday and noticed one of these. Looked really snazzy.
Apple does not need to do this, The CC industry is requiring all POS terminals to be updated by Oct 2015 to accept the Chip and Pin and those POS terminal include the NFC technology.
The issue is not a hardware one, it is the fact the merchants are not turning on the feature or updating their sales and order processing systems to enable the feature in the POS.