Costco does not accept the Apple card for payment. The clerk told me they do not accept MasterCard. Apple Pay (apple site) includes Costco as an accepted site. Seems that the issue is specific to accepting MasterCard. Just wanted to make people aware.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Card not accepted at Costco
- Thread starter jbowden
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
prestigiouswireless
macrumors member
Kind of knew that. Warehouses accept visa. Online is different. Clearly says at every register at least in my area
Yeah... I was kind of excited when I got the card. ApplePay (apple site) shows Costco as a supported site. I guess that was before Apple Card times. We spend a ton of small business cash at Costco. It would have been nice to get the cash back from Apple Card. Bummer!
Sam's Club is the same way, except there you can at least use their App (Scan & Go) and pay however you want (including Mastercard).
I think pretty much everyone who regularly shops at Costco knows they only accept Visa (in the US) or debit in store. Saying they take Apple Pay would be no different than saying they accept chip cards; it still has to be a Visa. It's just another method of taking Visa.
Sam's Club takes all major credit cards in stores. The app is not required.
myscrnnm
macrumors 68000
This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. It's well known in the US that Visa is the only credit card accepted at Costco since 2016. In fact I seem to recall the change making national news because American Express earnings dropped like ten percent from losing their exclusivity contract.
gsmornot
macrumors 68040
While it may not be a surprise, it was not something I thought about. I have been using my bank credit card (Visa) with ApplePay at Costco but would have tried my Apple Card and wondered a minute why the payment did not work. I have not thought about Visa vs MC in a while maybe because my default payment is a Visa. So, while it may not be a surprise to hear, I did not have it in mind and thanks for the info.
This appears to be country-specific: I just spent 2 weeks (Dec 2019) in Toronto, Canada.
I used Apple Pay linked to Apple Card at Costco Canada in the store several times.
According to the Costco Canada website, their credit card is MasterCard, hence this Apple Pay combination worked.
Tried the same thing in Costco USA store in Jan 2020, Apple Pay linked to Apple Card was not accepted, had to switch to Visa credit card.
It seems that Apple Pay and Costco US need to clarify their "Rules of Acceptance."
gsmornot
macrumors 68040
I guess you noticed, the US Costco card is a Visa. I think they like single provider so they get more competitive rates from the providers.
What payment methods are accepted at Costco?
Welcome to the Costco Customer Service page. Explore our many helpful self-service options and learn more about popular topics.
customerservice.costco.com
Edit: Just went and looked. The card I typically use, a Visa, has moved to MasterCard on my bank site. I wonder if they will send me a new one moving me to MC. If so, I will need to make a change if I want to pay at Costco. My other two cards I have are MasterCard already. Just interesting.
Last edited:
MisterSavage
macrumors 603
Before or after the Apple Card it would still be valid to say you can use Apple Pay at Costco. I use it there all the time. Costco only takes Visa in-store.
ActionableMango
macrumors G3
You are conflating Apple Pay and Apple Card. They are two very different things.
Apple Card is a Goldman Sachs Master Card. It doesn't work at Costco because Costco has an exclusivity deal with VISA, so they don't accept Master Card, Discover, American Express, Diner's, and whatever else is out there.
Apple Pay is a method of payment that can be tied to many things like credit cards, debit cards, and prepaid accounts like Apple Cash. Costco IS compatible with Apple Pay, but if you using a credit card then the card must be a VISA. If it is not a credit card, you are fine, for example debit cards and I think Apple Cash.
ecschwarz
macrumors 65816
I think this is a really good explanation—the payment network/card vs. the mechanism for passing the card information. It would be similar if a place had a EMV (chip) reader, but didn't accept a particular card network (or in Costco's case, Visa only)—the hardware can do it, but the payment processor/policies don't allow it.
Since Costco's terminals work with contactless, Apple Pay works, but the same card network restrictions apply. When the card is read, it's still seen as a Mastercard, regardless of how it's read (physical card, iPhone, Watch, etc.)
On the debit side, there's a bit of screwiness that they seem to still be ironing out with contactless (and Apple Pay)—Visa ones seem to work and are captured as PIN-based debit, while some people have had a little bit of trouble with some debit Discover and debit Mastercards being recognized. It's a software issue with the way they have contactless set up (others more familiar can probably fill in the gaps), but the physical cards read fine when swiped or inserted. This could cause problems with Apple Cash (it's a Discover debit card behind the scenes).
I was in Canada a few months ago and their exclusivity deal is with Mastercard (and their store card is a Capital One-issued Mastercard, unlike our Citi-issued Visa in the US), so the Apple Card worked fine up there.
MisterSavage
macrumors 603
Yeah my credit union (which only issues Mastercard credit cards now) sent out an email saying we could still shop at Costco with one of their debit cards because "Costco does accept Mastercard debit cards".
ecschwarz
macrumors 65816
Yeah, when you use a debit card there, it typically is run on the various debit networks (Plus/Cirrus/Pulse). It's also forced as PIN-based, so you can't do the "run as credit" bypass like you can at some retailers. I try to avoid debit use in retail (mostly for "firewalling" things), but this is where the various reloadable debit cards (Square Cash, Venmo's card, Chase Starbucks Prepaid Visa, etc.) can be handy if you don't want to get a Visa credit card or carry a bunch of cash, but go to Costco every now and then (sometimes people have Costco memberships through work or family members so they aren't all-in as if they were paying for it themselves).
MisterSavage
macrumors 603
It was useless info to me because I won't use a debit card. I've got plenty of Visa cards so Costco shopping with Apple Pay isn't an issue for me.
ecschwarz
macrumors 65816
It depends on the issuer for card network changes—sometimes they'll switch it wholesale (i.e. I used to have a Chase Freedom Mastercard that was converted to a Visa because Chase switched almost everything to Visa; people with some Citi Visa cards have gotten switched to Mastercard because they've gone almost entirely to Mastercard...except the Costco one).
Sometimes it depends on when you got it and they'll leave yours as is—Capital One and Bank of America seem to switch networks every so often: Capital One has gone back and forth between Visa and Mastercard for Quicksilver and Venture, Bank of America has gone back and forth for Cash Rewards (MLB is always Mastercard because of their sponsorship deal). For both, you generally keep that as long as you have the account, BofA seems to let you request a network change, too. In the case of Capital One, since you can't change networks, but can change reward structures, there have even been people who converted a Quicksilver Visa to a Savor and ended up with a Savor Visa, which was never issued to new customers.
It's also regionally dependent. The original San Francisco-based Bank of America founded Visa, formerly known as BankAmericard, and seems to have strong loyalty to them.
What we call Bank of America today was the merger or purchase of NationsBank, FleetBoston, Bank of America, MBNA, and some smaller banks. For example, FleetBoston was big on MasterCard, so BofA debit and credit cards from the northeast tend to be MasterCards.
ecschwarz
macrumors 65816
Yep, the only forced changes seem to be some cleaning up of the old MBNA portfolio, but like I said, they have mostly left things as-is for past customers (I think there's even a few BofA-issued Amexes from the early 2000s that are floating around).
As for flipping networks, I was talking about the more recent history—since 2016, the Cash Rewards card has gone from Mastercard to Visa and back to Mastercard for new applications nationwide The folks who wanted that for Costco and missed the chance when it was a Visa seem to have to get the Komen or WWF versions, or the various affinity ones not on their main page: https://www.bankofamerica.com/credit-cards/#filter (speaking of the past history, it's also been a little funny to me that the card issued as a BankAmericard today is a Mastercard)
I was in a market that Bank of America left and then returned and it seems that for awhile they were issuing Visa debit cards, went to Mastercard, and are back with Visa (for new customers/accounts). For most things, it probably doesn't make much of a difference (outside of Costco), but they seem to be the biggest outlier when everyone else is mostly moving to a specific card network.
gsmornot
macrumors 68040
I started with NationsBank when I got my first account. I left for a bit to use a credit union but once online banking arrived they were way behind so I went back to what had become Bank of America.
lartola
macrumors 68020
It is partially supported: Apple Pay works at Costco if the card selected is a Visa card. It doesn’t work if it’s any other card (even though they take all cards for debit, their system seems to run all contactless transactions as credit so apple pay/contactless with non-visa debit will fail to work too).
Note that this is only in the US. Costco in Canada has exclusivity with Mastercard so no problem using Apple Card there, and Costco Mexico takes all major cards so Apple Card is accepted there too (I have personally confirmed in Mexico).
lartola
macrumors 68020
Sam’s takes all major cards. They just don’t do contactless/apple pay, but you can still use physical apple card there (or the online card number for scan&go using the app).
lartola
macrumors 68020
It is. Costco stores in Canada and Mexico do take the Apple Card, only the US Costco stores don’t. It seems Costco US not only needs to clarify the rules, but they also need to fix their system: they supposedly take all debit cards, but in reality that only holds true when using chip or magstripe. When using contactless/apple pay their system apparently tries to run everything as credit, so debit card payments with non-visa fail to go through too.
lartola
macrumors 68020
Actually no. Users in reddit and other online forums have reported that contactless/apple pay with non-visa debit cards fails to work at Costco in the US. Presumably, this would be because Costco’s system is trying to run ALL contactless payments as credit, so it declines anything other than visa. They need to either fix that or clarify that non-visa debit card acceptance is limited to chip/swipe.
Last edited: