Walgreens to add Apple Pay support for Balance Rewards cards, reports say
U.S. pharmacy chain Walgreens is on the verge of introducing Apple Pay support for its Balance Rewards card, anecdotes from a number of users hinted on Wednesday.
Some people in the Balance Rewards program are now seeing their iOS Wallet version of the card supporting NFC by way of Apple Pay, according to MacRumors. People were previously able to add the card to Wallet, but could only bring it up for barcode scanning, not NFC transactions. The card may also show up as an NFC payment option on the Apple Watch.
In practice though, Walgreens retail terminals are so far refusing to accept any NFC transactions with the card.
Apple introduced support for loyalty and rewards cards in Wallet with last month's iOS 9 update, but retailers have been slow to jump on board.
The update also brought support for store-based credit cards, but only one merchant -- Kohl's -- is on the official Apple Pay roster. By contrast, there are over 600 supporting banks and credit unions in the U.S., and more than a dozen in the United Kingdom.
Some people in the Balance Rewards program are now seeing their iOS Wallet version of the card supporting NFC by way of Apple Pay, according to MacRumors. People were previously able to add the card to Wallet, but could only bring it up for barcode scanning, not NFC transactions. The card may also show up as an NFC payment option on the Apple Watch.
In practice though, Walgreens retail terminals are so far refusing to accept any NFC transactions with the card.
Apple introduced support for loyalty and rewards cards in Wallet with last month's iOS 9 update, but retailers have been slow to jump on board.
The update also brought support for store-based credit cards, but only one merchant -- Kohl's -- is on the official Apple Pay roster. By contrast, there are over 600 supporting banks and credit unions in the U.S., and more than a dozen in the United Kingdom.
Comments
Some people in the Balance Rewards program are now seeing their iOS Wallet version of the card supporting NFC by way of Apple Pay, according to MacRumors.
I wonder how Apple Pay has anything to do with this rewards card. If you redeem your rewards with an iPhone does the transaction some how go through the Apple servers?
be nice to see costco and BJ's wholesale add it to reward card i could also use to gain entry and also purchase items..
be nice to see costco and BJ's wholesale add it to reward card i could also use to gain entry and also purchase items..
Costco is dropping Amex, changing to Visa (I've heard Citibank) in March so I doubt you'll hear anything about them accepting ApplePay until then. Of course, Costco and Apple had a tif awhile back so it could take even longer before Costco agrees to work with Apple on anything new. The new Visa card will be a reward card and customers with Amex will be automatically transferred to the new card. I've asked cashiers before and they either didn't know what ApplePay was or said they hadn't heard anything.
Costco is dropping Amex, changing to Visa (I've heard Citibank) in March so I doubt you'll hear anything about them accepting ApplePay until then. Of course, Costco and Apple had a tif awhile back so it could take even longer before Costco agrees to work with Apple on anything new. The new Visa card will be a reward card and customers with Amex will be automatically transferred to the new card. I've asked cashiers before and they either didn't know what ApplePay was or said they hadn't heard anything.
thanks - maybe these giants would at least get their membership cards into passbook / wallet
I used it today and it works fine although it is not fully integrated.
You have to use either NFC or let the cashier scan the code for the rewards.
It would be much better if the machine could read the reward code and and then pay or vice versa in one pass.
That'll never happen
It's two different systems, doesn’t work that way. You have to use both cards physically now, so why would it be different?
What we need is for the rest of phone maker to add there
Own version of ?Pay, that way the market will be force
To get on board.
It's two different systems, doesn’t work that way. You have to use both cards physically now, so why would it be different?
Why can't the phone be smart enough to present the cards to the terminal one after another? Or at the same time, since the contactless protocol is smart enough to handle multiple cards being read at the same time?
It's two different systems, doesn’t work that way. You have to use both cards physically now, so why would it be different?
It can work that way. Using the right APIs, the user can be allowed to use a credit card + the store rewards/coupons card subsequently via NFC in one pass; coupons could also be applied automatically to your purchase. The terminal can determine where each piece of information goes. I think they are just starting to integrate this. There is a lot more todo.
I don't understand your comment and question. This is the Apple Pay service insofar that it's in the Wallet app nee Passbook app, and uses NFC to allow you to scan your rewards card, instead of the previous option of showing a barcode and/or number. Nothing is going through Apple's servers at the retailer, which is one of the benefits of the Apple Pay system over other mobile payment systems.
I don't understand your comment and question. This is the Apple Pay service insofar that it's in the Wallet app nee Passbook app, and uses NFC to allow you to scan your rewards card, instead of the previous option of showing a barcode and/or number. Nothing is going through Apple's servers at the retailer, which is one of the benefits of the Apple Pay system over other mobile payment systems.
My assumption was that the rewards card had absolutely nothing to do with Apple Pay which is why I asked what the association was between Apple Pay and the rewards card. If the rewards do not involve a transaction going through Apple servers then it isn't Apple Pay.
Tho obviously if you use a rewards card that retailer just got the transaction info sans actual CC# (unless it was a store card) anyway. By the way do any major mobile payment systems share your real CC number with the retailer? I don't think so as I thought all were now tokenized (industry requirement) but I could be wrong.