Apple Pay adds over 50 more US card issuers as merchant support waits
Another 50-plus U.S. card issuers have been added to the list supporting Apple Pay, continuing to outpace the number of merchants actually accepting payments through the service.
As most nationwide chains signed on within the first few months of Apple Pay's launch in October 2014, most new issuers are small local institutions.
Apple Pay is on the verge of expanding to countries like China, but U.S. retail support has lagged considerably. Just a handful of big chains have announced plans to go live in 2016, among them Starbucks and JCPenney.
The full list of new issuers includes:
Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster earlier this week said he expects 2016 to be a a big year for Apple Pay, with a potential peer-to-peer service rollout, in-browser payment support and more.
As most nationwide chains signed on within the first few months of Apple Pay's launch in October 2014, most new issuers are small local institutions.
Apple Pay is on the verge of expanding to countries like China, but U.S. retail support has lagged considerably. Just a handful of big chains have announced plans to go live in 2016, among them Starbucks and JCPenney.
The full list of new issuers includes:
- 1st MidAmerica Credit Union
- Achieve Financial Credit Union
- Advantage Federal Credit Union
- Alloy Federal Credit Union
- Altoona First Savings Bank
- Altura Credit Union
- Amalgmated Bank of Chicago [sic]
- Associated Credit Union of Texas
- Bank of Ann Arbor
- Beehive Federal Credit Union
- Brand Banking Company
- Business Bank of St. Louis
- Capitol Credit Union
- Charlotte State Bank & Trust
- Citizens Bank (AL)
- Citizens Savings Bank
- Community Credit Union
- Credit Union of Texas
- Earthmover Credit Union
- Employment Security Credit Union
- Family Trust Federal Credit Union
- First Community Bank of Beemer
- First Interstate Bank
- First Service Federal Credit Union
- Fort Community Credit Union
- Georgia Bank and Trust
- HomeStar and Financial Services
- Houston Highway Credit Union
- IDB-IIC Federal Credit Union
- Jefferson Financial Credit Union
- Katahdin Federal Credit Union
- Lion's Share Federal Credit Union
- Mainstreet Community Bank of Florida
- Marine Bank & Trust
- Marine Federal Credit Union
- Monona State Bank
- Navy Army Community Credit Union
- Northway Bank
- Oakworth Capital Bank
- Plaza Park State Bank
- Reliant Community Credit Union
- Security Bank and Trust Company
- Silver State Schools Credit Union
- Spencer County Bank
- Summit Community Bank
- Sundance State Bank
- The Commerce Bank of Washington
- Tioga State Bank
- Torrance Community Credit Union
- Total Community Credit Union
- Triangle Credit Union
- United Community Bank
- USNY Bank
Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster earlier this week said he expects 2016 to be a a big year for Apple Pay, with a potential peer-to-peer service rollout, in-browser payment support and more.
Comments
We have got to stop accepting that merchants are the issue. Look for the new terminals and give it a try as it only takes a moment to see if NFC is alive.
Wish they provided terminals themselves with an etched ApplePay logo. An NFC iPad POS campaign would have worked as well.
I just find it strange some merchants are relying on extra Square hardware to support ApplePay.
It works great at Whole Foods, McDonald's, and Meijer's. Other places like Walgreen's makes it more complicated then necessary because you still have to hit a ton of buttons on their reader.
There were other stores that said it accepted Apple Pay, like Lucky's Market. Accept the transaction never goes through.
Apple needs a team that works with merchants 1) to roll the technology out, and 2) trouble shoot when it doesn't work.
Apple should promote merchants in commercials and on its website.
I really hope we can get some updates on how many POS terminals are ApplePay-compliant, and what proportion of total that is. Adding more credit card companies or banks is essentially meaningless at this point.
(Btw, has anyone else noticed that typing 'applepay' is the only Apple product or service that does not automatically capitalize the word in appropriate places in an iOS device? I wonder why that is. iTunes, iPad, iPod, iPhone, CarPlay, iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, etc etc do not have this problem!).
There are three elements to the equation.
(1) the POS hardware in the store. Until that is upgraded ApplePay won't work. Do you think elves come in at night and install the new ones? Sansung is making a big deal out of the fact their SamsungPay works with the old hardware (while it's still in use)—with the new hardware they've still got to get the financial institutions on board or they are dead in the water. I think 2016 is the year everyone is to go to new hardware.
(2) The customer. Unless their bank or credit union has signed on with ApplePay they can't use it even if they are in front of a new terminal with their new iPhone.
(3) The banks and credit unions who issue credit cards to their customers. Here's where Apple has been putting their efforts. These are the institutions that have to change their software to handle ApplePay. The customers and the POS hardware is helpless until these institutions get on board. These are the real gatekeepers.
You will notice that the retail stores are not part of the above list of three elements. You will also notice from the comments that the retail stores that can process ApplePay don't necessarily know it. If they have the new POS hardware, it makes no difference unless the customer banks with an institution who is on-board with ApplePay. Except for a short list of stores that want a cut of the credit card transaction and want to transfer the liability of credit card fraud off to their customers (I'm talking about you, Walmart)... ApplePay will soon work everywhere there's a new POS terminal.
Meanwhile, once the new POS terminals are in a store, Samsung Pay will be sucking air when the financial institutions cut over to higher security transactions... with the possible exception of the 30 banks that have signed onto Samsung Pay. One thousand (and counting) poised to handle ApplePay, and 30 behind Samsung Pay — which one you want to bet on winning?
By the way, do you use the credit cards on Pay for any other non-Pay purchases? If so, your specific Pay purchases may be secure, but your card is as still insecure as always with any other purchase.
What has actually happened is that all the banks in those countries have balked at their original "we will probably support it" posture and are now adamantly opposed to it. We are now over a year past the original predicted launch date in those countries. Apple, at least as far as any reporters have been able to find out, has basically just sat on their hands in regards this situation. There are no Apple emissaries we know of trying to convince those banks to sign on. They may be working with the US banks, but most of them are already onboard anyway.
Numbers 1 and 2 are really only problems in the US market, so I expect what's really happening is that Apple is doing what it always does and is focussing on the first two items in the USA (and only the USA), and is essentially doing nothing to drive Apple Pay adoption anywhere else. The fact that they teamed up with American Express in Canada and Australia is actually a big f-you to the banks in those countries so it seems unlikely they are actually working with them in any collaborative way.
1) See post #7 in response to @cali's post.
2) In the US eleven (yes, eleven) banks account for 80% of all credit cards -- four account for 50%. All are on ApplePay. Statistics are similar in other major economies. Look it up and educate yourself before throwing out cheap insults.
3) See (2) above.
I have one small criticism though: they should implement 3D touch on the wallet so that you can quickly change cards with one hand. While you're running stuff through the checkout, you only have one hand free for fiddling with your phone.
At some point, all US merchants will need to install NFC terminals, otherwise they'll be liable for fraudulent transactions that happen in their stores. I don't think Apple needs to be in the business of making NFC hardware. The retailers will install new terminals. They haven't really got much of a choice.
Particularly on the latter point, any employee who works at an NFC enabled terminal should be able to guide a first time AP customer through the steps, just as they do with chipped cards. Managers make sure their staff knows how to help a customer with a credit card, chipped credit card, and debit card. Not so much with ApplePay. The latter may apply equally to Google Wallet. It's not our job to train a merchants staff, but many of us do, all the time.
How 'bout if we video a transaction where we perform a training transaction, and send Apple a link to the video with the merchant's address. Apple gives us an iTunes credit and then contacts the store or their Corporate HQ with a polite WTF follow up. Persuading a store, especially a non-chain store to upgrade their gear is always a tougher sell.
Getting a bunch of banks on board is all well and good, but it's not much help when the store level implementation is stagnant.
That's the whole point of going to those places that do use ApplePay in the first place- to minimize the possibility of your info being "hacked". Allowing for the whole statistical variables thing, simplistically speaking if you make ten stops for purchases and five of them accept ApplePay, there is the potential that your card is generally safer than if none of those stops accepted ApplePayl
I remember when credit cards came out. First it was "do you accept" credit cards, then it was "do you accept "Whatever" credit cards. Then there was the ATM card thing. "Yes credit cards, no ATM cards" And "Yes, we accept ATM cards, but not that one" etc.
The benefits of ApplePay are solid, but the alternative- credit cards, ATM cards, and occasionally cash, are too ubiquitous for it to spread quickly, without Apple's concerted help.
Apple would (and we) would be better served with getting more merchants in the game than more banks. Banks are good, sure, but not much help if their customers aren't using ApplePay.