Apple Pay picks up 26 more US banks & credit unions

AppleInsider

Apple has updated its roster of banks and credit unions with Apple Pay to include 26 more U.S. institutions, filling in a shrinking number of coverage gaps.

As has become standard, all of the additions are regional rather that national, sometimes based around a single city. Most national card issuers were onboard within the first year of Apple Pay's Oct. 2014 launch.

The full update list follows:

• ACIPCO Federal Credit Union
• Arthur State Bank
• Bank of Eastern Oregon
• Blue Federal Credit Union
• Capital Credit Union
• Choice One Community Credit Union
• City Bank
• Community Powered Federal Credit Union
• Dedham Savings
• Delta Bank
• Education Credit Union
• First Colorado National Bank
• First State Bank & Trust Company [MO & NE]
• Freedom Bank
• Glacier Hills Credit Union
• Helena Community Credit Union
• LifeStore Bank
• Lincoln National Bank
• Oregon Community Bank
• Ridgewood Savings Bank
• Southern Pine Credit Union
• State Bank of Table Rock
• Sun Community Federal Credit Union
• Taconnet Federal Credit Union
• Territorial Savings Bank
• Utah Federal Credit Union

In the U.S., Apple Pay's biggest obstacle is merchant support rather than card issuers. While the platform is said to be accepted at half of the country's stores, major chains like Walmart and Target are conspicuously absent.

Apple is meanwhile continuing international expansions, one of its next targets being Brazil.

freshmaker

Don't really care what banks support it at this point, as pretty much all of them do.  Apple really needs to push merchant integration.  It's getting better, but needs to be more widely accepted.  I try and use Apple Pay whenever I can, tho I'm not driving to another store just to use it

cornchip

AppleInsider said:

major chains like Walmart and Target are conspicuously absent....

Also Lowe’s & Home Depot. Very annoying.

macgui

freshmaker said:

Don't really care what banks support it at this point, as pretty much all of them do.  Apple really needs to push merchant integration.  It's getting better, but needs to be more widely accepted.  I try and use Apple Pay whenever I can, tho I'm not driving to another store just to use it

Agree with almost all of the above. As for the last bit, I do drive to a different store as it's almost as close as an otherwise first choice. 

I think getting more banks on board has less effect on getting more merchants than would (more?) aggressively targeting merchants and advertising Apple Pay along with the Watch and phones. If there's been any TV advertising of Apple Pay, I've missed it entirely. 

beowulfschmidt

macgui said:

freshmaker said:

Don't really care what banks support it at this point, as pretty much all of them do.  Apple really needs to push merchant integration.  It's getting better, but needs to be more widely accepted.  I try and use Apple Pay whenever I can, tho I'm not driving to another store just to use it

Agree with almost all of the above. As for the last bit, I do drive to a different store as it's almost as close as an otherwise first choice. 

I think getting more banks on board has less effect on getting more merchants than would (more?) aggressively targeting merchants and advertising Apple Pay along with the Watch and phones. If there's been any TV advertising of Apple Pay, I've missed it entirely. 

I won't abandon a place that doesn't take Apple Pay, but I do consider nearby alternatives the next time I need something from such a place.

22july2013

For me, it's neither the banks nor the retailers that is my main problem with Apple Pay. The main problem is that even with Apple Pay I still have to manually enter my tip for dinner on the wireless terminal instead of on my iPhone. The second biggest problem is that sometimes I have to turn the phone upside down or sideways to get the terminal to accept my phone's signal. And my third problem is that I've never seen anyone talk about these two problems so Apple will likely never fix them.