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:

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.

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21 Comments

dtidmore

said about 8 years ago

Alluding that merchants are specifically holding back accepting Apple Pay is simply misdirection. The issue is merchant chose to delay upgrading to new chip ready terminals. ALL chip terminals have the NFC chip in them as part of the encrypting code necessary for chip to work resides in the NFC chip. I have found in the DFW area that as I see more and more smaller shops finally upgrading to the newer, small, more affordable chip POS terminals that these SAME merchants have NO idea that Apple Pay is even exists. Most in fact will initially say that they don't accept such. Yes, I am aware that in some cases, the vendors of the new chip terminals have unfortunately presented NFC activation as an added cost to the merchant, but the overwhelming majority work perfectly. I was recently in PepBoys and noticed they had new terminals. I told the cashier that I was going to try Apple Pay since I saw the NFC logo. He almost immediately told me they did not accept it and before the words had hardly left his mouth the transaction went thru. He was shocked! He told me that they had not been able to even get the chip side to work on the new terminals so for NFC payment to go through, let alone Apple Pay, he was astounded. Then just yesterday, I was in a local mom/pop donut shop and noticed they had gotten new chip terminals. Again they were totally clueless about NFC or Apple Pay, but astounded to see it work.

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.

cali

said about 8 years ago

Apple should create a campaign to raise awareness for merchants.

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.

fortify7

said about 8 years ago

I agree with many of the previous comments except that some big box retailers choose not to such as CVS. I like Apple Pay so much that I switched entirely to Walgreens. So, retailers need to beware if they choose to go against the consumer. I'm frankly tired of hearing my credit card was compromised. Apple Pay gives me piece of mind. And, it's faster and easier. Last week at Trader Joe's, I got to cut in line cause the two people in front of me wanted to see me use it!

bells

said about 8 years ago

dtidmore said:

Alluding that merchants are specifically holding back accepting Apple Pay is simply misdirection. . .

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.

But many times the merchants are the issue. Take for instance, Tim Horton's. They have the terminals. I walk up and place an order. The credit card pops open on my phone. When I put my finger print on the phone, it simply doesn't work on Tim Horton's end.

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.

bells

said about 8 years ago

cali said:

Apple should create a campaign to raise awareness for merchants.

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.

Apple should promote merchants in commercials and on its website.