Apple Pay with new Apple Card

[slooksterPSV]

Hi all. I went the route of getting an Apple Card. However I’m finding I can rarely make purchases with it. Each place I’ve tried to use it at declines. I’ve been able to use it twice for small $2 purchases but most places where it’s been over $4 it fails. The stores tell me they’ve had issues with the Apple Pay readers but it seems odd that so many places don’t work with it. Anyone else have issues?

 

[4sallypat]

Confused - OP can you tell me if the physical titanium card is being declined (mag stripe swipe) or the Apple Pay digital wallet using your phone ??

 

[rugmankc]

Also, what stores?

 

[slooksterPSV]

Confused - OP can you tell me if the physical titanium card is being declined (mag stripe swipe) or the Apple Pay digital wallet using your phone ??

So sorry. The Apple Pay app on my phone. I just barely got the card and haven’t used the physical card yet.

 

[rugmankc]

I have never had it declined at any place that takes Apple. Have you talked to Apple/GS?

Maybe remove and reinstall Apple Card. Not sure of process. But, if you kept packaging, you should be to do that. Research that first

Try another card in your Wallet when the AC doesn't work. Should be able to reselect the card you were using if you didn't delete it. Do this at the time AC is declined.

 

[4sallypat]

So sorry. The Apple Pay app on my phone. I just barely got the card and haven’t used the physical card yet.

Sounds like the merchant is having an NFC issue with their POS terminals.
I have had issues with some merchants (CVS, Walgreens, small businesses using Square contactless readers & PayPal readers, etc)
For those merchants, I have had to pull out a physical card to complete the transaction.

This assumes you are correctly communicating from your phone's NFC to their POS reader - if you are doing it correctly (double tap right button) when checking out, the POS will catch the NFC from your phone and make the payment.

 

[slooksterPSV]

Sounds like the merchant is having an NFC issue with their POS terminals.
I have had issues with some merchants (CVS, Walgreens, small businesses using Square contactless readers & PayPal readers, etc)
For those merchants, I have had to pull out a physical card to complete the transaction.

This assumes you are correctly communicating from your phone's NFC to their POS reader - if you are doing it correctly (double tap right button) when checking out, the POS will catch the NFC from your phone and make the payment.

Sounds like it’s a merchant issue cause it varies depending on the place. Walgreens and fast food works great. Gas stations seem to be having the most issues.

 

[GeekyGrannie]

I have an issue with one particular restaurant. On my first visit I tried to pay with Apple Pay on my watch and the Apple Card was refused. I swiped to another card and was able to pay. The second time, I was refused again when I tried using Apple Card on my watch, so I pulled out the physical Apple Card and used the chip reader successfully. Apple Pay has worked with the Apple Card on my watch at many other places, but this particular contactless reader just refuses it. I am curious why the Apple Card is rejected in this situation. Is there anything special about how Apple Pay presents it?

 

[mizzourah]

I have an issue with one particular restaurant. On my first visit I tried to pay with Apple Pay on my watch and the Apple Card was refused. I swiped to another card and was able to pay. The second time, I was refused again when I tried using Apple Card on my watch, so I pulled out the physical Apple Card and used the chip reader successfully. Apple Pay has worked with the Apple Card on my watch at many other places, but this particular contactless reader just refuses it. I am curious why the Apple Card is rejected in this situation. Is there anything special about how Apple Pay presents it?

This is the problem I having at Chik Fil A - this exact thing. The manager says they aren't 'ready' for the card yet, but it's just the apple pay interface - right? Whatever card I have there should work? And when I asked them do they take mastercard, they said yes - so.....very strange. I paid with a different card (through apple pay).

 

[twinpeaks_sf]

I’ve been experiencing the same issue at a ~few~ places with Apple Card + Apple Pay (I say few b/c it works most of the time just fine). I’ll try to use my contactless Apple Card and it is be ‘declined’ though I get the ^tap tap^ on my wrist like it went through. Sometimes I’ve been able to get it to work on the 2nd or 3rd try, but other times not.

- Square readers (at smaller businesses) — no problems at all
- Container Store — failed on 1st try, worked on 2nd try
- Local restaurant (with Verifone reader) — didn’t work until I switched to another card (i.e., Apple Card failed)
- Mendicino Farms — failed on 1st try, worked on 3rd try

I’ve been using Apple Pay since Day 1 and it now constitutes a strong majority of my daily in-person transactions — before Apple Card, I’d give it a 99% success rate, so perhaps Apple Cards presents itself differently. When Apple Card doesn’t work, I switch to another card and it’s fine. But again, this is a super limited issue for me and it’s generally reliable, so probably a bug that’ll work itself out. I’m sure they’re getting the ‘declined’ statistics.

 

[GeekyGrannie]

I chatted with support about this and they said they saw no record of my card being refused. Basically they had no clue what was happening and suggested that the merchant may need to upgrade the reader's software.

It helps to know that I am not the only one with this problem. I am hoping this will all smooth out with time.

 

[slooksterPSV]

I chatted with support about this and they said they saw no record of my card being refused. Basically they had no clue what was happening and suggested that the merchant may need to upgrade the reader's software.

It helps to know that I am not the only one with this problem. I am hoping this will all smooth out with time.

Same here. I called them after it happened again and they said the merchant may be having issues with their systems. They recommended I contact the merchants about. They saw 0 declines from 3 different stores where it declined.

 

[sniffies]

I still don't understand what store's Apple Pay reader has to do with non-physical Apple Card or the software. When you scan your iPhone, it's the Apple Pay interface that handles everything. It shouldn't matter which card within iPhone Wallet is used for transaction, as long as the store accepts Apple Pay. In other words, when the store tells you their terminals are not ready for non-physical Apple Card, it doesn't make any sense. If their terminals work with Apple Pay, then they should work with any card in your iPhone Wallet.

 

[Erehy Dobon]

.

 

[mizzourah]

I still don't understand what store's Apple Pay reader has to do with non-physical Apple Card or the software. When you scan your iPhone, it's the Apple Pay interface that handles everything. It shouldn't matter which card within iPhone Wallet is used for transaction, as long as the store accepts Apple Pay. In other words, when the store tells you their terminals are not ready for non-physical Apple Card, it doesn't make any sense. If their terminals work with Apple Pay, then they should work with any card in your iPhone Wallet.

yes - this is my confusion as well - apple pay is apple pay - that's the contact with the store/restaurant. Whatever I use that apple pay works with shouldn't matter to them - they get their funds, net of the fee from apple pay. No matter what I use.

 

[GeekyGrannie]

yes - this is my confusion as well - apple pay is apple pay - that's the contact with the store/restaurant. Whatever I use that apple pay works with shouldn't matter to them - they get their funds, net of the fee from apple pay. No matter what I use.

Um, not exactly. You get a 2% bonus for using the card with Apple Pay and only 1% for using the physical card. Maybe the merchant has to agree to this before the Apple Pay/Apple Card combination will work.

 

[genomez]

I was originally declined on the Apple website and later went into an Apple store and was declined there. After a 45 minute phone call and being transferred 5 times they finally got the transaction to go through.

Granted, it was $4K when I bought my new MacBook Pro so I understood they might want to verify it wasn't a stolen card, but the physical card and Apple Pay were both declined. The 45 minutes is what was the worst part but the Apple Rep through in an extra charger and cable for the trouble.

 

[swandy]

yes - this is my confusion as well - apple pay is apple pay - that's the contact with the store/restaurant. Whatever I use that apple pay works with shouldn't matter to them - they get their funds, net of the fee from apple pay. No matter what I use.

I think it is because - and this is just a guess on my part - when you use Apple Pay electronically (meaning no physical card) I think the transaction is handled directly by Apple themselves and when you use the physical card, it is actually handled as a "MasterCard" transaction through Goldman Sachs - hence the increased cost (or more accurately loss of revenue) to Apple, so the lesser cash back percentage. Again, this is just conjecture on my part.

 

[nicho]

I think it is because - and this is just a guess on my part - when you use Apple Pay electronically (meaning no physical card) I think the transaction is handled directly by Apple themselves and when you use the physical card, it is actually handled as a "MasterCard" transaction through Goldman Sachs - hence the increased cost (or more accurately loss of revenue) to Apple, so the lesser cash back percentage. Again, this is just conjecture on my part.

Your and @mizzourah 's confusion comes about because, unfortunately, that's entirely not how it works. "Apple Pay" is a naming scheme for a bunch of different things that the consumer interfaces with in the same way but the backends are entirely different. Mastercard/Visa/Discover/China UnionPay/JCB networks handle the actual payment processing using the information presented to them when using Apple Pay on an iOS/watchOS device. Fun fact: they're often not interoperable. Apple Pay in mainland China is entirely different to that of the rest of the world thanks to China UnionPay and using "Apple Pay" even in Hong Kong (China) will result in a failed transaction because Apple Pay there is looking for Mastercard or Visa.

The number of payments Apple process directly in a year could be counting on one - closed-fisted - hand. Apple Pay cashback is increased over the physical card as a "loss leader" to encourage apple pay usage and reduce physical card usage/risk of fraud - it doesn't actually cost anything different in terms of transaction processing.
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If their terminals work with Apple Pay, then they should work with any card in your iPhone Wallet.

If their cars work with gas pumps, then they should work with any fuel in your gas station.

Unfortunately, much as diesel/petrol are incompatible, so are some of the payment networks bundled together as "Apple Pay". Maybe things will get there in the future, but right now? No. And this isn't a new phenomenon. It's been a problem since the early stages with Amex. https://www.americanexpress.com/ca/en/apple-pay/

 

[Brien]

So far no complaints. Already use Apple Pay most places so why bot get 2% back (and as straight cash, not gift cards or points). Plus a bitchin’ physical card.

 

[iGeek2019]

I'll assume it's the same in the U.S. but I wonder if any places where cards have been declined haven't had their BIN list updated and the payment processor/merchant hasn't recognised the card?