If you thought using Apple Pay was easy, a Mastercard Biometric Checkout Program will let you pay simply by smiling at the payment terminal.
The company says that the initiative will be rolled out globally, starting with trials in Brazil …
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Apple Card will start to change by 2027. Mastercard announced it’s “swiping left” on magnetic stripes after decades of supporting this technology. “The shift away from the magnetic stripe points to both consumers changing habits for payments and the development of newer technologies,” says the company in a blog post.
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Verizon and Mastercard have announced a new partnership that hopes to advance contactless payment solutions with 5G cellular service. The collaboration is aiming to help small and medium-sized businesses and one of the most interesting possibilities is making iPhone and other smartphones contactless payment terminals without needing any external hardware.
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The promotion MasterCard ran back in November, offering free travel in London when using a MasterCard in Apple Pay, is back.
If you’re in London, have got a MasterCard and haven’t yet started using Apple Pay, today would be a great time to start. The card company has launched a promotion offering free travel in London on Mondays, starting today. Quite a neat way of persuading people to select a MasterCard as their primary card in Apple Pay …
The promo covers tubes, trains and buses. Just use Apple Pay with a MasterCard selected when you touch in and out, and all your fares for the day will be refunded to your card – up to a maximum of £27.90. The offer runs on Monday November 23rd & 30th, plus December 7th and 14th.
Apple has also been highlighting Apple Pay, recently adding a new Guided Tour video to its YouTube channel on how to use Apple Pay on the iPhone. The company already had one for the Apple Watch, but this is the first video how-to for the iPhone. The expansion of Apple Pay to new cards continues apace.
Via Engadget
MasterCard announced today that it’s turning on Apple Pay at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, Ohio just in time for the 2015 MLB All-Star game taking place July 14.
Those attending the game, or the pre-game events kicking off this weekend, will be able to use Apple Pay to pay for food, merchandise, and more.
“We’re thrilled to partner with MLBAM to bring contactless acceptance to the 2015 MLB All-Star Week festivities. Through our longstanding relationship with MLB and MLBAM, we are constantly looking for opportunities to create enhanced fan experiences both in-stadium and online, whether that’s through advanced payment capabilities or delivering surprises to fans.”
As it has done with past events, such as the recent PGA Tour earlier this year, MasterCard is running a promotion offering attendees that opt for Apple Pay a chance to win one of its Priceless Surprises. At other events, MasterCard has been known to offer seat upgrades, event related merchandise, VIP experiences, and more for those that pay with Apple Pay:
“MasterCard cardholders who use Apple Pay at contactless merchandise and concession acceptance locations at the T-Mobile All-Star FanFest taking place July 10th through July 14th or in-stadium at Great American Ball Park from July 12th through July 14th could get a little something extra – from All-Star branded premiums, autographed memorabilia to prepaid cards and more.”
Apple has been rolling out Apple Pay to more banks and credit unions each month since first launching the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch-based payments service in the US back in October. It most recently brought the service to 20 more US banks and credit unions ahead of an international expansion into the UK later this month.
Discover announced today that it’s made a deal with Apple to join the other three big card companies already offering support for the company’s new payments service, Apple Pay. That means that starting this fall, Discover cardholders will finally be able to add their cards to the service and make contactless, NFC-based payments using iPhone and Apple Watch, as well as make payments within apps supporting the platform on all iOS devices.
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Apple Pay partner MasterCard used the PGA Tour kickoff in Phoenix earlier this year to promote Apple’s mobile payment service, and today MasterCard announced that Apple Pay will be accepted at the upcoming Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, Florida. MasterCard says that almost all vendors at the golf event will accept Apple Pay and other contactless payment options for paying for merchandise and concessions.
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Ahead of Apple’s ‘Spring forward’ event on Monday where we expect to hear much more about the Apple Watch, more than a dozen new banks and credit unions have added support for Apple Pay. The Apple Watch will support the mobile payment service and extend Apple Pay support in stores beyond the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus to the iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, and iPhone 5s when paired. Following the addition of 18 new banks including credit unions for American Airlines and IBM today, Apple Pay is now supported by nearly 100 institutions. Here’s the list of newly added banks:
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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMw_rr3OYYw]
It’s no surprise that the three major card companies in the US have been taking advantage of being the first with Apple Pay out the door and that the majority of their latest ads and promotions have centered around the new payment service. The latest comes from American Express with a just released ad focusing on highlighting Apple Pay as “The Next Evolution of Membership.”
Last month Apple rolled out support for dozens of banks and credit unions with Apple Pay bringing the count to more than 45 institutions, and today Apple is out with the first wave of the month adding more than a dozen new banks to its list of supported Apple Pay banks bringing the total count to over 60 institutions. Here are the new banks listed as supporting Apple Pay as of today:
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MasterCard announced today that it’s bringing Apple Pay to the PGA Tour starting with its first stop at the Waste Management Phoenix Open kicking off this week.
MasterCard will also offer attendees using Apple Pay the chance to earn rewards through its Priceless Surprise program.
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MasterCard is out with its latest “Priceless Surprises” ad featuring Apple Pay with the help of artist Gwen Stefani. Like its previous World Series promotions, which put Apple Pay front and center, the new 30-second spot shows cardholders using the iPhone 6 and Apple Pay to checkout for purchases and being rewarded with various offers like golf trips, handbags, and concert tickets. The chance to meet Stefani is also on offer with her latest single, “Spark The Fire”, set as the ad’s soundtrack.
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Apple has been rolling out support for its new Apple Pay payments service to more and more banks in recent weeks. The latest addition was America First Credit Union making an announcement late last week, but Apple has since updated its support document over the weekend to also announce support for Commerce Bank.
Commerce Bank, which serves Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Oklahoma, Colorado and a few other locations, hasn’t yet made an official announcement, but it’s now listed as supporting personal credit cards on Apple’s support site for Apple Pay. Apple notes that currently Commerce Bank is only supporting MasterCard for the service despite the bank also offering cards from one of Apple’s other Apple Pay partners, Visa.
Commerce Bank joins America First Credit Union, American Express, Bank of America, Barclaycard, Capital One, Citi, Commerce Bank, J.P. Morgan, M&T Bank, Merrill Lynch, Navy Federal Credit Union, PNC, Regions Bank, SunTrust, U.S. Bank, U.S. Trust, USAA, and Wells Fargo.
Apple Pay has also added a number of supported retailers and apps in recent weeks with the latest additions including Sephora, tickets.com, Disney Store app, and others.
We have a running list of banks that plan to support Apple Pay in the coming weeks and months here. We also have a running list of the latest stores and apps that accept Apple Pay here.
Shortly after retail chain Whole Foods announced that it had processed 150,000 Apple Pay transactions in the three weeks since the service was launched – estimated at around 1% of the company’s sales – a business author and senior Hitachi consultant has spoken about the twin attractions of Apple Pay for retailers.
Jim Maholic, author of Business Cases that Mean Business and vice president in Hitachi Consulting, said major retailers had two main reasons to favor Apple Pay over rival mobile payment service CurrentC …
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Walmart is one of several high-profile retailers that belong to MCX, a consortium of retailers that have partnered together to create their own mobile payments service called CurrentC. Due to this commitment, the big-box retailer has opted against supporting Apple Pay in its stores. A new report offers a big reason why: high credit card transaction fees.
Update: USAA, US Bank and Navy Federal have just confirmed Apple Pay support starting today. In addition, MasterCard confirmed a roll out for Barclaycard, USAA and Navy Federal Credit Union, while readers report cards from PNC, and M&T Bank also working in Apple Pay.
Ahead of a previously announced Nov. 7 launch for Apple Pay support, a number of users today report being able to load USAA issued cards into the new payment service. We’ve received tips from readers regarding support for USAA Debit MasterCards and a long list of other customers online report support for other card types through the bank.
Apple has yet to update its support document detailing supported banks and card types. Currently the list includes American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Citi, J.P Morgan, Merrill Lynch, U.S. Trust and Wells Fargo.
A long list of other supported banks and cards are scheduled to arrive in the coming weeks and months, however. Apple previously said it had signed up approximately 500 banks for Apple Pay in the US.
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The NYT reports that Rite Aid has joined CVS in disabling Apple Pay as a payment method in its stores. Like CVS, Rite Aid is a member of the Merchant Customer eXchange (MCX) consortium promoting a rival mobile payment service, CurrentC.
Consumers are responding by threatening to boycott stores which disable Apple Pay, with more than 2,000 comments across several Reddit threads on the topic. Android users are joining in, as disabling NFC also blocks alternative mobile payment services offered by higher-end Android handsets …
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Update: A spokesperson for Amazon confirmed Amazon Rewards Visa cards now support Apple Pay: “Amazon Rewards Visa Cardholders can now pay with Apple Pay. The website (https://www.chasedigitalpayments.com/) has been updated and cardholders can now start provisioning their cards.”
Just two days after Amazon said it was working to enable its Rewards Visa card in Apple Pay, the company has made good on its promise. Reddit users are reporting success in adding the card, and TechCrunch posted the above photo of a card loaded into the app …
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We haven’t seen any TV ads from Apple for Apple Pay since it launched earlier this week on Monday, but that doesn’t mean no one else is advertising the new mobile payment service on television. Apple Pay partner MasterCard has begun airing a new set of MLB World Series-focused ads aggressively promoting Apple Pay and the iPhone 6 in the process. As we noted earlier this week, both MLB stadiums for the World Series will be accepting Apple Pay at the concession stands for each baseball game meaning you got buy your peanuts and cracker jacks using just your iPhone 6 or 6 Plus. Check out the ads below to spot Apple Pay in action at the baseball stands.
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Following yesterday’s launch of Apple Pay through participating card issuers, banks and retailers in the US, some users have discovered that the payment service is also already being accepted through some retailers abroad. 9to5Mac readers report using Apple Pay loaded with a US-based credit card at retailers in Australia and Canada…
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While we’d all expected plastic bank cards to be replaced by apps eventually, the CEO of mobile banking startup Moven is suggesting that Apple’s backing could mean the end of physical bank cards within 2-3 years.
The additional sweetners here are three fold. Firstly, tokenization will avoid much of the type of breaches we’ve seen at Target and Home Depot because the token is only a one-time use thing. Secondly, the move to tokens and the combination of biometrics, etc allow for the emergence of a ‘cardholder present’ approach to interchange rates that will potentially give mobile payments a competitive merchant rate. Lastly, the US might effectively jump straight from magstripe to mobile, especially if issuers can figure out how to reduce the cost of card replacement by moving straight to mobile SE and tokens …
After years of annual rumors that each successive iPhone would feature NFC, there was understandable skepticism when the rumor rolled around again this year for the iPhone 6. It was looking like Apple might have put all its short-range communication eggs in one basket with Bluetooth LE.
Instead, of course, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus got NFC as the mechanism for Apple’s contactless payment service, Apple Pay. Pando suggests that the company’s timing may not be entire coincidental.
While U.S. banks have so far ignored the more secure chip-and-pin cards used in Europe, sticking doggedly to magnetic strips and signatures, all that will be changing next year. As of October 2015, banks are switching to chip-based cards – and that means merchants will need to upgrade their payment terminals.
You can still get chip-reading terminals without NFC, but it’s likely that the vast majority of stores will opt to go contactless at the same time. Which means that instead of the 220,000 places you can use contactless payment today, there will be much closer to nine million outlets by this time next year – and you’ll be able to pay with your iPhone 6 at any of them.
U.S. card issuers are already pushing Apple Pay, MasterCard running a full-page ad in today’s New York Times (via Business Insider).
Discover has tweeted that its cards will be joining Amex, Mastercard and Visa in the Apple Pay service, allowing electronic versions of its cards to be stored in Passbook for contactless payment using the iPhone 6 and Apple Watch.
[tweet https://twitter.com/discover/status/509405306531876865]
