Target Begins Apple Pay Rollout at Select Locations

[MacRumors]

Target last month announced that it would begin accepting Apple Pay at all of its stores in the coming weeks. That rollout has now begun.

MacRumors readers have shared photos of NFC-enabled payment terminals at select Target stores in the Northeast and Midwest, including the White Plains, New York location below. The updated interface indicates that Apple Pay is accepted along with Google Pay, Samsung Pay, and contactless credit cards.

The blog Appleosophy also ran a story about the rollout that was picked up on Reddit, where some commenters said that Apple Pay was not yet available at their local Target stores, so this appears to remain a work in progress.

A spokesperson for Target confirmed with MacRumors that REDcards cannot be added to Apple Pay as part of the rollout, although future support is not ruled out. REDcards are Target-branded credit and debit cards, offering an automatic five percent off most purchases at its stores everyday.

Target was one of the largest Apple Pay holdouts in the United States. The retailer was initially committed to the failed CurrentC platform alongside other large chains such as Walmart, Best Buy, CVS, Rite-Aid, Publix, and 7-Eleven.

Article Link: Target Begins Apple Pay Rollout at Select Locations

 

[centauratlas]

They just need to bite the bullet and allow the Red Card to be added. To do otherwise is just delaying the inevitable, and stupid to boot. ApplePay plus 5% is the smart thing to do.

 

[jmh600cbr]

the amount of bloatware and trash tech in the payment industry in the US is hilarious. VeriFone makes the clunkiest, silliest machines. In Canada we have these tiny things that you just tap and they are in every store, it has nothing to do with the store deciding when to roll out, the payment module accepts tap (apple pay is just NFC tech for those american's that think it is somehow special).

 

[brian3uk]

About time. If Publix would get on board then I'd finally be able to use it almost 100% of the time.

 

[Baymowe335]

I already used it at Target Saturday.

 

[djeeyore25]

I hope they accept Garmin Pay as well.

 

[NachoGrande]

Target is my only store credit card... Spend too much their to not use it and get the 5%.

 

[GDF]

Until redcard is added, it really does not matter. Crazy can't use that with Apple Pay yet.

 

[MenaceF1]

the amount of bloatware and trash tech in the payment industry in the US is hilarious. VeriFone makes the clunkiest, silliest machines. In Canada we have these tiny things that you just tap and they are in every store, it has nothing to do with the store deciding when to roll out, the payment module accepts tap (apple pay is just NFC tech for those american's that think it is somehow special).

Yep. Same in the UK. Pretty much every shop accepts tap payments. (We call them "contactless"), which automatically means they allow Apple Pay, Android Pay, and whatever else NFC based payment system is available. Having just got back from the US it was painful to find places that still need to use the magnetic strip on my credit card.

 

[Ivan0310]

Haven't seen this particular screen, but I noticed at my Target this weekend (North Texas) that the telltale green dots appeared at the top of the PoS terminal indicating that contactless payment acceptance was active.

 

[Rogifan]

Works at my Targets in Minneapolis. Though I didn’t see any signage or indicators that contactless payments were accepted other than some green dots on the screen.

 

[AlliFlowers]

Finally! I can go back to shopping at Target.

 

[miflgr92]

About time. If Publix would get on board then I'd finally be able to use it almost 100% of the time.

I try to pay with my phone every time I go to Publix and when the cashier tells me that they don’t accept Apple Pay, I act surprised and annoyed lol. Hopefully they get the hint and add it soon.
[doublepost=1549291411][/doublepost]

Yep. Same in the UK. Pretty much every shop accepts tap payments. (We call them "contactless"), which automatically means they allow Apple Pay, Android Pay, and whatever else NFC based payment system is available. Having just got back from the US it was painful to find places that still need to use the magnetic strip on my credit card.

I lived in the UK for a while and loved how widespread contactless payment was. Almost a year back in the US and it still pisses me off that I have to pull out my cards all the time. It’s a shame how long it’s taking for contactless to become available everywhere here.

 

[ddtmm]

Here in Canada, if you add your VISA to your Apple Wallet you can use Apple Pay wherever the accept "Tap" credit cards. Has nothing to do with whether the vendor accepts Apple Pay or not. Why is it that the US is always the last to embrace technology - even when they invent it?

 

[Dentifrice]

Can someone explain me why it's per store in USA while in Canada I just add my credit card and I can use it EVERYWHERE ?

 

[truthertech]

It's finally reaching critical mass as far as acceptance. The next phase is awareness. For example, Costco, a huge retailer, starting accepting Apple Pay last summer, but there wasn't any type of announcement and their machines don't have any symbols, etc., that let you know they are NFC/Apple Pay capable, so most people have no idea it's still not accepted.

Apple has done local advertising campaigns where they have merchants signed up to offer discounts for a few days when using Apple Pay, but Apple hasn't really done any significant broad advertising for Apple Pay; likely because they didn't want people to be frustrated when they tried to use it at merchants that didn't accept it. Perhaps, they are reaching that point where it's feasible to do that national campaign.

 

[ksec]

They just need to bite the bullet and allow the Red Card to be added. To do otherwise is just delaying the inevitable, and stupid to boot.

I am pretty sure all Credit Card issuer get the Data they want even if the holder are using Apple Pay. So what is delaying the rollout is definitely not privacy related. I wonder what could be the reason behind it. ( Other than Apple taking 10-20 base point )

Edited to Highlight something that was clearly quoted.

 

[JRobinsonJr]

the amount of bloatware and trash tech in the payment industry in the US is hilarious. VeriFone makes the clunkiest, silliest machines. In Canada we have these tiny things that you just tap and they are in every store, it has nothing to do with the store deciding when to roll out, the payment module accepts tap (apple pay is just NFC tech for those american's that think it is somehow special).

Agreed. Headlines like this - while useful - are indicative of an underlying silliness here in the US. This isn't really an "Apple Pay" rollout. It's nothing more than enabling a hardware feature that is built in to virtually every payment machine. It's ridiculous that retailers even have the option of disabling features such as NFC and chip-readers. Yes, I understand that some systems don't support it, but that is just another lame-butt symptom, not the underlying problem.

 

[ecschwarz]

the amount of bloatware and trash tech in the payment industry in the US is hilarious. VeriFone makes the clunkiest, silliest machines. In Canada we have these tiny things that you just tap and they are in every store, it has nothing to do with the store deciding when to roll out, the payment module accepts tap (apple pay is just NFC tech for those american's that think it is somehow special).

It's not Verifone that's the problem - the mx915s/925s that Target and others use have NFC enabled by default. In fact, there's a lot of smaller Verifone terminals (vx820) that look more like what's around the rest of the world for the all-in-one units. I suspect if they'd do a retrofit to existing units without NFC, we'd see more like the "panels" that some places around the world have.

Yep. Same in the UK. Pretty much every shop accepts tap payments. (We call them "contactless"), which automatically means they allow Apple Pay, Android Pay, and whatever else NFC based payment system is available. Having just got back from the US it was painful to find places that still need to use the magnetic strip on my credit card.

Here in Canada, if you add your VISA to your Apple Wallet you can use Apple Pay wherever the accept "Tap" credit cards. Has nothing to do with whether the vendor accepts Apple Pay or not. Why is it that the US is always the last to embrace technology - even when they invent it?

Most of the articles like this basically just mean that these merchants are enabling NFC. You don't have to do anything special to accept Apple Pay if contactless/NFC is enabled, but many have made a conscious effort for some reason or another not to enable NFC, even if they have compatible terminals. I suspect in the past it had to with so few contactless cards being issued meant that they didn't want to support or hassle with anything related to it, but now it's been places that are fighting Apple/Android Pay (Walmart is a prime example of this).

 

[canadianreader]

Here in Canada, if you add your VISA to your Apple Wallet you can use Apple Pay wherever the accept "Tap" credit cards. Has nothing to do with whether the vendor accepts Apple Pay or not. Why is it that the US is always the last to embrace technology - even when they invent it?

Can someone explain me why it's per store in USA while in Canada I just add my credit card and I can use it EVERYWHERE ?

It means they're accepting NFC payments and the article is misleading as if Apple Pay needed some unique technology in order to use it.

 

[truthertech]

Can someone explain me why it's per store in USA while in Canada I just add my credit card and I can use it EVERYWHERE ?

Because each store has their own readers that they have to decide to upgrade to accept NFC. Most now have, but it has been slow as the US banking system did not adopt chip and PIN system on cards until a couple of years ago. Until then it was all based on signing and magnetic strips, because the banks feared consumers couldn't adapt and they just passed on fraud as a cost of doing business, so none of the readers worked with NFC and there was no reason for merchants to pay for new ones, until a couple of years ago.

Also,as to why it is by store; most stores now accept it, but some large merchants thought they could get together and get a piece of the action, (search CurrentC), from the money that they were paying to credit card companies, so even with NFC readers, they turned off that capability. Others feared losing out on customer data that they were used to getting. Consumers were, and largely still are, ignorant of using contactless payments, so there wasn't any pressure on merchants until recently as consumers became aware, but around 75% I believe now take it, with a few notable holdouts, such as Walmart, which is also pushing its own Walmart Pay system.

 

[Rogifan]

I am pretty sure all Credit Card issuer get the Data they want even if the holder are using Apple Pay. So what is delaying the rollout is definitely not privacy related. I wonder what could be the reason behind it. ( Other than Apple taking 10-20 base point )

They don’t get data if you’re using Apple Pay. That’s the whole point of it.

 

[ecschwarz]

I am pretty sure all Credit Card issuer get the Data they want even if the holder are using Apple Pay. So what is delaying the rollout is definitely not privacy related. I wonder what could be the reason behind it. ( Other than Apple taking 10-20 base point )

Apple takes 0.15% from the issuing bank for every transaction, not the merchant. In the case of the Red Card, TD would be hit with it. Many banks are fine with this because it's a small percentage and adds a layer against fraud. In order to get Red Card into Apple Pay, Target and TD would probably have to work to get it enabled (at least the Mastercard version, the "debit" version would need a little bit of extra work, like the Kohl's store card).

The annoying thing is that it's up to each issuing bank if they want to add cards to Apple Pay - I think Synchrony allows most of their cards, but IIRC the PayPal card can't be added. The same goes for the Citi Best Buy card, even though just about every other Citi card is capable to be added.

 

[Dentifrice]

Every time I go to USA and I realize I need to give my credit card to the waiter in restaurants and I have to write down my tip...with a pen...on the bill. Wow. It feels like 1995.

 

[truthertech]

It means they're accepting NFC payments and the article is misleading as if Apple Pay needed some unique technology in order to use it.

Apple Pay did, and does, need some unique technology to use-- a NFC reader. Lowe's Hardware, for example, can't take Apple Pay because they haven't upgraded their old card readers yet. Some of Kroger's chains still have the old machines.