Roger Fingas
Apple on Tuesday added another 12 U.S. banks to its official list of issuers with cards supporting Apple Pay, putting the total over 300 for the first time.
The new supporting partners are predominantly regional ones. Banner Bank, for example, is based in the Pacific northwest, while Synovus Bank is based in Georgia and operates throughout the southeast.
The full list of additions includes:
- Banner Bank
- BayPort Credit Union
- California Coast Credit Union
- Centier Bank
- Community First Credit Union
- Glenview State Bank
- HAPO Community Credit Union
- Prestige Community Credit Union
- Provident Credit Union
- Staley Credit Union
- Synovus Bank
- Wood & Huston Bank
Apple Pay is still a U.S.-only venture, although the company is believed to be working on expansions to the U.K., Canada, and China.
More news about the platform is expected to arrive next week during Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference. One announcement may involve a rewards program which will accrue perks for people who use Apple Pay on a regular basis. That may be necessary to compete with Google, which is reportedly exploring rewards initiatives of its own.
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Wesley Hilliard
AppleInsider Staff
22 Comments
CIBC (Canada) can have an Apple Watch app available on launch day but yet still isn't on board with Apple Pay...
There's a lot of us out there that are businesses and issued a PAYPAL debit card. We use it for everything because that's where our money is setting. I called the bank that issues the actual MasterCard portion of the card and if you're THEIR customer they offer ?Pay but when you tell them your card number they refer you back to PayPal. When you contact PayPal they aren't rude but when they tell you "I'm noting your request and will forward it on..." I have a feeling they're doing that "writing in the air" technique I use when people say to me "here's your case number" and I nod and say "thank you". LOL Come on PayPal. You know yours is not going to catch on so make the debit card work for ?Pay before apple offers their own debit card because then we'll all leave and it will be too late you took to long to get with the program.
I know we keep getting these seemingly impressive-sounding updates (just like we do about how many "automakers have signed on to CarPlay") but at the end of the day, all that matters for ApplePay is who accepts and where. While I see more and more, it's still far from where it should be in terms of adoption at the POS.
It%u2019s interesting that the US lags the world for the types of cc%u2019s that work best for Apple Pay yet the serivce is only available there. In Canada the chip & pin or tap to pay are everywhere but Apple Pay is MIA. True, Canada only has a handful of banks (mostly with 1,000s of branches) and therefore they are stronger than the fragmented hundreds of banks model seen the US, but Apple must have been able to interest at least 1 of the Canadian banks, you%u2019d think.
I have travel to Canada recently and had not been there in a long time so this was my first experience with chip and pin everyone keeps saying if better and how the US is so far behind the rest of the world who switched over to Chip and Pin. As a person who used the CC swipe method for a long time as well as the Debt card with pin methods and now recently the chip in pin in canada, I can say Chip and Pin is a pain to use it take so many extra steps, Apple Pay is now the simiplest method to pay it take me a whole 10 sec if that to pull my phone out hold it to the terminal and have it ping to said it paid. With my watch I do not even need to reach in my pocket anymore hold the watch up and paid. Grant it, some places still do not know how to processs the order on the systems sometime the clerk still requires me to sign the paper copy other times they get the payment and it is done. This happens at the same place and it must be how the person closes out the transation after it pays which prints a signature copy.