Apple Pay gains support for 18 more US banks, credit unions
Apple on Tuesday updated its list of official Apple Pay-backing card issuers with 18 more U.S. institutions, putting the current total close to the 500 mark.
Continuing recent trends, the additions skew towards a relatively even mix of credit unions with traditional banks. For a stretch of time the company concentrated heavily -- though not exclusively -- on credit unions.
Apple Pay is now available in both the U.S. and the United Kingdom, the latter having gained the platform in July. Several major banks there have yet to launch promised support, including Barclays, Halifax, Lloyds, and the Bank of Scotland.
The next country to gain support could be Canada, since rumors have pointed to a November launch. An announcement could be made at an anticipated Sept. 9 press event.
The complete list of new banks includes:
Continuing recent trends, the additions skew towards a relatively even mix of credit unions with traditional banks. For a stretch of time the company concentrated heavily -- though not exclusively -- on credit unions.
Apple Pay is now available in both the U.S. and the United Kingdom, the latter having gained the platform in July. Several major banks there have yet to launch promised support, including Barclays, Halifax, Lloyds, and the Bank of Scotland.
The next country to gain support could be Canada, since rumors have pointed to a November launch. An announcement could be made at an anticipated Sept. 9 press event.
The complete list of new banks includes:
- Arlington Community Federal Credit Union
- Bank of Idaho
- BankFirst
- Charter Bank
- Community Bank
- Community Bank of Oak Park River Forest
- Corporate America Family CU
- Credit Union of New Jersey
- Del Norte Credit Union
- Empower FCU
- FORUM Credit Union
- Gesa Credit Union
- Institution for Savings
- Mid-Missouri Bank
- Owen County State Bank
- Pacific Service Credit Union
- Statewide Credit Union
- Vinton County National Bank
Comments
Looks like there's more banks and credit unions supporting ApplePay than retailers. The banks get it but retailers just won't take the time to understand what's going on. I'm tired of educating retailers about the October change and how even the chip reader is more secure than their antiquated magnetic strip reader. The cashiers just don't understand and management doesn't care.
I signed up for the upcoming Square chip+NFC reader. When/If I finally get around to selling some woodworking items, I'll make sure I put a big ApplePay logo on the reader so knowledgable customers can see it and will be prepared to educate users and other vendors about it. Apple's marketing is not reaching the retailers and definitely not the majority of iPhone users. People are simply buying a phone and not educating themselves on it's capabilities other than how to take selfies and use Facebook.
We need merchent support and exposure !
We need to recognize where the service is honored... Not experiment at every cashier register looking like a fool if it does not work!
Flood merchants with applepay stickers.. Give them incentive to put stickers on windows and registers!
I have a big sign stating that I can take NFC payments like Google Wallet and Apple Pay.
APPLE.... its not only about gaining banks..
We need merchent support and exposure !
We need to recognize where the service is honored... Not experiment at every cashier register looking like a fool if it does not work!
Flood merchants with applepay stickers.. Give them incentive to put stickers on windows and registers!
I'm with you but the ones I've been testing that have the chip reader either don't include NFC or they've turned them off so there seems to be a concerted effort by retailers not to take any NFC transaction. I still check Home Depot to see when they will turn NFC back on. I haven't read anything recently about their progress.
Flood merchants with applepay stickers.. Give them incentive to put stickers on windows and registers!
My guess is that Apple are playing it steady-as-you-go. If they are deemed to be agressive then the spectre of Anti-Trust might rear its ulgly head. They have to be seen to 'play nice' IMHO.
There really is not credible competition in the US especially while you guys catch up with a good part of the rest of the world with NFC and Chip & Pin. Once that has taken hold at the end of the year things might change.
Now in the UK, I do agree that they should be out promoting it. There are some alternative (and mostly crackpot) schemes being mentioned buy once ApplePay takes off then I can't see much apart from Google/android Pay from getting a decent toehold.
I'm with you but the ones I've been testing that have the chip reader either don't include NFC or they've turned them off so there seems to be a concerted effort by retailers not to take any NFC transaction. I still check Home Depot to see when they will turn NFC back on. I haven't read anything recently about their progress.
They like the customer information they capture with the insecure system and until the changeover of liability there's little to no downside. Once the fraud liability shifts we'll see.
Looks like there's more banks and credit unions supporting ApplePay than retailers. The banks get it but retailers just won't take the time to understand what's going on. I'm tired of educating retailers about the October change and how even the chip reader is more secure than their antiquated magnetic strip reader. The cashiers just don't understand and management doesn't care.
I signed up for the upcoming Square chip+NFC reader. When/If I finally get around to selling some woodworking items, I'll make sure I put a big ApplePay logo on the reader so knowledgable customers can see it and will be prepared to educate users and other vendors about it. Apple's marketing is not reaching the retailers and definitely not the majority of iPhone users. People are simply buying a phone and not educating themselves on it's capabilities other than how to take selfies and use Facebook.
Merchants don't care? I doubt they don't care but I'm certain they are dealing with the October deadline. They need to upgrade their credit/debit/NFC equipment. What merchants do is dependent what equipment manufacturers are offering. I'm betting Apple along with other NFC proponents have their fingers in the manufacturers business.
Merchants don't care? I doubt they don't care but I'm certain they are dealing with the October deadline. They need to upgrade their credit/debit/NFC equipment. What merchants do is dependent what equipment manufacturers are offering. I'm betting Apple along with other NFC proponents have their fingers in the manufacturers business.
NFC has been included in many POS stations well before Apple announced ApplePay. NFC is not new, except in the minds of people in the US. Don't you remember reading about all the stores that accepted NFC payments before they started turning the functionality off? Once CurrentC was announced, all the POS stations that had NFC suddenly didn't work. There are many merchants who just aren't aware of NFC and I'm betting aren't aware of the October deadline. If they are, they aren't telling their cashiers. I'm talking about both large and small retailers. Cashiers at large retailers obviously never get anything from management but many times the cashiers at small retailers are the owners or talk to the owners on a regular basis and when I talk to them about the October deadline (my wife gets upset every time I do) they have a blank stare. Only a small percentage actually know what I'm talking about. Remember, we're only talking about the US market where merchants don't want to update anything sooner than they have to and even then they complain about it. They want all the money going into their pockets, nobody else's.
I think it may be a change in software defaults. Outside of the US, it is absolutely rare to see "NO TAP" stickynotes on devices that clearly have NFC enabled. The two places that I go to once in a while that have NFC but do this include 7-11 (Canada) and Arby's (Food court location), while the functionality of NFC tends to erode over time. Loblaws (Real Canadian Superstore, T&T, etc) I find has the least reliable and most inconsistent NFC functionality. With the 7-11 location, it actually fails if you try to tap, every time. I've seen a similar gas-station/corner-store's have the same thing, where the device will say tap, but the person operating the POS system will say to insert the card.
So if there is a corporate policy to "tell the customer to insert the card, always" then I'd say they are probably violating MC/Visa agreements. If they are turning off or breaking the NFC component for some reason (Eg preventing Apple Pay) then I'd say Visa/MC/Amex needs to put pressure on merchants to "accept NFC and Chip+PIN as equal"
It's well known that merchants will not manually key credit cards in because of the fraud risk, yet it's sometimes required on portable devices (eg Square Reader) due to interference, by those providing internet service. So perhaps some of these merchant aggreements don't mention NFC and the merchants are treating it as manual-keying rather than equivalent to chip+pin.