Amazon Confirms Plans to Support Apple Pay on Visa Rewards Card in the Future

Amazon Confirms Plans to Support Apple Pay on Visa Rewards Card in the Future

TWHH said:

Why not focus on making this available to non-US customers?

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Its up to the banks, not entirely Apple.

Hence... Amazon holding it back, and not Chase/VISA/Apple

Plutonius said:

Most banks are very conservative and slow. They need studies and multiple approvals before they can decide something is safe and in the banks interest. Most banks and businesses will eventually implement this (except Walmart ).

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That's fine if they want to be behind the times and let the competition beat them. They lose customers every time and will because of this too.

Verizon did with the original iPhone. They turned Apple down and lost billions because of it. Operating a company the same today as you did back in the 1980s or before.

cmwade77 said:

I don't get it......what is so much better about using a cell phone (which has problems with lasting an entire day without a charge anyway) to pay for something than simply swiping a credit card?

Really, it makes no sense to me.

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Security. This right here will be the selling point. It's a token that gets passed, no customer info and no customer credit card is sent.
convenience, less to carry. Also, I lose my wallet, I am calling a few companies to cancel cards too. yes, I won't be liable, but it will be a pain and take time. Someone takes my phone, they need my finger to buy anything AND just go to Find My iPhone and wipe the phone.

I used it at Whole Foods, Walgreens, and Panera and it was VERY fast.

I get over a day with my iPhone 6 and I email a lot, texting, facebook, on websites, and others. People with an iPhone 6 Plus gets even better life than me.

Plutonius said:

Most banks and businesses will eventually implement this (except Walmart ).

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Just one more reason for me not to give my money to Wal-Mart.

Plutonius said:

Most banks are very conservative and slow. They need studies and multiple approvals before they can decide something is safe and in the banks interest. Most banks and businesses will eventually implement this (except Walmart ).

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A lot of people on here that are saying it works at Walmart. It seems like they aren't telling people because not all Walmarts are NFC compatible.

I'm sure Amazon thought they could opt out and be fine but this is exactly what I figured would happen to banks/cards that decided to opt out. People are threatening to switch cards & banks. How's that for disruption? PayPal is suddenly spinning off of eBay after that whole debacle and the CEO is "leaving." Resistance is futile. lol. If Apple decides to find a way to send money to people, PayPal is going to be in a lot of trouble and they are company that would do it out of spite. I would be happy to get rid of my PayPal account. I try to use Chase QuickPay when possible these days.

Seriously though, this was Apple's aim and this is how the market/industry is going to change. It's going to force banks & cards to be cooperative or lose business. It's going to compel retailers to install or update NFC terminals (with the exception of NYC bodegas and non-hipster street food trucks). It'll be good for Google Wallet customers as well as hopefully the carriers will stop blocking it from them (one of the key issues for low adoption rate I believe).

The news & hoopla from the US launch is going to push international banks to hurry up and get it in their country. It's going to standardize security in regards to NFC usage on phones, cards, chips, etc.

It sounds like I'm overselling and an overly zealous fangirl but look back on this in a year or two and let's see where we are.

Side Note: of my Android friends who were all "I've had that on my phone for a year," very few actually used it. GWs adoption rate on available phones will go up after this as well.

dacreativeguy said:

I'm not holding my breath. This is just damage control. If Amazon wanted to support it, it would already work. Chase has many other cards that do work. How different can Amazon be, functionally?

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Functionally different? None. I think this was a play for Amazon since they compete in a lot of spaces with Apple.

I'll be happy once I can use my discover card and td bank card.

Nice!!!!

1UpRusso said:

I have the Banana Republic Visa card as well and I have to say that it is by far the worst credit card management system I've ever seen. Synchrony Bank (formerly GE) is behind it and the way statements are viewed/paid is so terrible that they must have purposefully designed it that way in order to obfuscate what your charges are. They also are the only bank that blocks Mint.com, so I can't even review my charges that way, which is how I manage my personal finances.

Given all that, I had do doubt that Pay would not be supported by them either.

I'd cancel the card, but I buy so much from Banana and other Gap stores that it's still worth it just for those purchases.

But wow are they just terrible.

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Wow, I think you are me. lol

I have also been frustrated by the lack of Mint support. Even worse everytime I try to set them up on auto pay though my bank they deny the request saying I am already enrolled. The only reason to have them, as you say, is to by from the gap family and get the reward points and discounts. Otherwise, I would have dropped them a while ago. Gap needs to partner with a better credit management company.

God, all these tantrums from entitled doofuses.

Canceling a credit card simply because it doesn't immediately support Apple Pay is ridiculous.

"Oh noes, my bank doesn't use this new technology that I just found out about that might save me five whole seconds at McDonald's! I'm taking my iPhone and going home!"

This will (I hope) be the result for the other hold outs like Walmart and BestBuy! Get with it or get left out! I shop at these two places but will gladly shop somewhere else if they don't get a clue! The bigs always think they know better and can do better! We see how that works for ya!!!

Again, it's SECURITY. I don't understand why people keep referencing the speed differential. That's nice, but it's the security that makes the most difference. Not having to keep getting my credit and debit cards reissued because of a data breach, not having to worry about my card being skimmed, not having to worry about my card data being kept on some company's server? Priceless.

Moorepheus said:

While this is a start, it has very limited support from the multitude of banks out there. In fact, I think there are only 9 banks participating http://support.apple.com/kb/HT6288 I have 5 credit cards and 1 Bank Card in my LEATHER WALLET, of which, 1 was only usable with Apple Pay.

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There are over 500 banks and credit unions who are already participating, or in process to participate.

inkswamp said:

Interestingly, looking around in various news sites, I see next to no reporting of this beyond the Geekwire article. Who else thinks if it were Apple pulling this kind of blatantly anti-competitive stunt that #cardgate would already be trending on Twitter and a countless articles about It would have already deluged the news sites?

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Yes, where IS the DOJ on this? Why haven't they sued Apple over it yet?

TWHH said:

Why not focus on making this available to non-US customers?

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Because there are many banks around the world that don't run on the same networks as the US. Things like this take time.

AspectRatio said:

Canceling a credit card simply because it doesn't immediately support Apple Pay is ridiculous.

"Oh noes, my bank doesn't use this new technology that I just found out about that might save me five whole seconds at McDonald's! I'm taking my iPhone and going home!"

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I think you may be misinterpreting the tweet, though I will cheerfully admit that the way its worded leaves it open to such misinterpretation.

I think (as in "this is my opinion") that the person perceived Amazon's intentional blocking of Apple Pay as an anti-competitive move and cancelled the card because of that, not JUST "doesn't take ApplePay." It's because not taking Apple Pay is being deliberately anti-competitive and anti-Apple (for a company that makes a huge sum of money every year because of Apple products).

I’m giving Amazon 1 month to support Apple pay, if it doesn’t by then I’m canceling my Visa Rewards card. I didn’t buy an iphone 6 not to take advantage of all its features.

I have a Chase Amazon Visa but I never use it anymore. The chase Amazon Visa gives 3% back on amazon purchases and 2% back on drug store and gas purchases. I get back much better with other cards. Chase Freedom gives 5% back this quarter on amazon purchases and often does 5% back on gas and drug stores in rotating categories. AMEX Blue cash preffered does 6% on grocery purchases and 3% on gas and department stores all year round. I often buy amazon gift cards at safeway and get 6% cash back. My Citi double cash offers 2% cashback on ALL purchases with no limits. My citi Forward card gives 5% back year round no limits on all restaurant purchases via thank you points.

If anything I view Apple pay as a means to make it easier than ever to maximize reward points by being yet one more solution to have the right card at the right time for every moment. If a card issuer does not want to participate that's fine with me as I will live and find a way to maximize my return but it gives me one less reason to use their card. Anyhow I probably still won't be using my amazon visa even if they do participate in Apple Pay as there are better options.

Why stop there?

ChasInVictoria said:

I think you may be misinterpreting the tweet, though I will cheerfully admit that the way its worded leaves it open to such misinterpretation.

I think (as in "this is my opinion") that the person perceived Amazon's intentional blocking of Apple Pay as an anti-competitive move and cancelled the card because of that, not JUST "doesn't take ApplePay." It's because not taking Apple Pay is being deliberately anti-competitive and anti-Apple (for a company that makes a huge sum of money every year because of Apple products).

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If that's the case then he should stand by his righteous principles and stop using Amazon altogether. But I don't see any tweets about him wanting to do that.

MacRumors said:

Amazon has, however, now confirmed ... that it does plan to support Apple Pay with the card in the future.

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Might as well do it, Amazon. Get on board or get left behind.
I'll never use any proprietary "Amazon Pay" scheme that you could devise.
(Especially not it if uses your Frankensteined fork of Android 2.3.)

If apple pay is suppose to be a safer way to pay with a credit card, what is the big deal of people not supporting this? I only use my Amazon Rewards Visa and was disappointed too.... I just don't see the reason credit card companies would deny access. Don't they want business too?

alphaod said:

Because there are many banks around the world that don't run on the same networks as the US. Things like this take time.

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Different networks, yes. But apparently Apple Pay doesn't need any proprietary point-of-sale hardware. Just a normal NFC terminal. The data that is sent to the banks is supposedly formatted and encrypted just like any other NFC transaction, but the data includes a one-time-use token number and your device ID instead of your actual credit card info.

The hard things (biometric authentication, secure storage of your real credit card info) are all done by the iPhone itself. I'm not sure if there are any real technical issues for banks and merchants if they want to support Apple Pay and already have NFC terminals in place. (Looking at you, Peet's Coffee & Tea.)

I think the main issue is negotiating deals with banks.
And negotiations are much easier for both sides after a successful rollout.

If I were a bank executive and my company had not worked with Apple on the development of Apple Pay, I'd probably have a "wait and see" attitude about the whole thing. I probably wouldn't pull the trigger until the technology had been tested, successfully, in the field, by a large enough number of consumers. And I'd be calling Apple right now and telling my IT department to start coding Apple Pay support.

Ntombi said:

There are over 500 banks and credit unions who are already participating, or in process to participate.

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Where are you getting your information? According the APPLE on their website, Apple Pay is only supported by the following 9 Issuers.

American Express
Bank of America
Capital One
Chase
Citi
J.P. Morgan
Merrill Lynch
U.S. Trust
Wells Fargo

Until the other 491 Banks/Credit Unions turn this on for them, they are meaningless.

Moorepheus said:

Where are you getting your information? According the APPLE on their website, Apple Pay is only supported by the following 9 Issuers.

American Express
Bank of America
Capital One
Chase
Citi
J.P. Morgan
Merrill Lynch
U.S. Trust
Wells Fargo

Until the other 491 Banks/Credit Unions turn this on for them, they are meaningless.

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Here's a list of financial institutions who are in the process, and more are added daily. Just because they're not all "turned on" today doesn't mean they're meaningless, that's a ridiculous statement.

http://usa.visa.com/clients-partner...on/apple-pay/financial-institutions/index.jsp

USAA, for example, says they'll be ready early November. That's a couple of weeks from now.

I added my Amazon Visa to Apple Pay yesterday -- Chase added support for more card types.