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Apple Pay UK American Express

U

uuee6543

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 21, 2015
36
70
It looks like a number of retailers that both accept Amex and contactless payments in the UK don't take Amex contactless (i.e. don't take Amex Apple Pay). Here is a list I found online and compiled myself:

Retailers accepting Apple Pay Amex Contactless:
Boots (confirmed)
BP
Apple Store (limitless, confirmed)
Costa
M&S(confirmed)
Post Office
Pret a manger (which seems to take limitless transactions for Apple Pay)(confirmed)
Transport for London
Nando's (confirmed)
Weatherspoons
Giraffe
Hotel Chocolate
Spar (ones that accept Amex)
Tesco (in the ones that accept contactless)
Co-operative (in the ones that accept Amex)
Yo Sushi
GBK
Subway (only some locations, unfortunately the ones with black terminals don't work for Amex contactless, despite working with Amex chip&pin)
Waitrose (confirmed)
Itsu (confirmed)

Retailers accepting Apple Pay BUT NOT AMEX:
Asda (some don't accept contactless at all)
Starbucks (confirmed)
W H Smith
Super Drug
Thorntons
Wilkinsons
Poundland (many Poundlands don't accept contactless at all)
EAT (confirmed)
Cafe Nero
Tossed (confirmed)
McDonald's
Subway (stores using older black terminals only accept Amex chip&pin)

Please feel free to comment on/add to this list below.
 
Last edited:
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I would add but I'm a bit confused on your wording and columns, I went to McDonald's on my lunch today, on on the payment terminal it had the usual product slide show, with a new one showing you can pay with apple pay, but at the bottom was a caveat that said Amex not accepted via Apple pay, I can't work out if that is why McDonald's is on your list or not?

Edit:

From re reading your post I guess McDonald's needs to be moved down to 'retailers accepting Apple pay but not from Amex cards'
 
mattlynch90 said:
I would add but I'm a bit confused on your wording and columns, I went to McDonald's on my lunch today, on on the payment terminal it had the usual product slide show, with a new one showing you can pay with apple pay, but at the bottom was a caveat that said Amex not accepted via Apple pay, I can't work out if that is why McDonald's is on your list or not?

Edit:

From re reading your post I guess McDonald's needs to be moved down to 'retailers accepting Apple pay but not from Amex cards'
Click to expand...

As I said, some of these I found online, I have only myself tested Starbucks, Boots, Waitrose amd Tossed so far. I moved McDonald's to the lower section.
 
Very useful thread thanks! I'm stuck with just an Amex card until HSBC get their act together.

So far I've failed to use it in Costa Coffee, but will try again as it was a store with an older terminal.

And I guess it's not a surprise but I just used Apple Pay - Amex in the Leicester Apple Store successfull, for £39 too, so we'll over the 'contact less limit'.
 
uuee6543 said:
As I said, some of these I found online, I have only myself tested Starbucks, Boots, Waitrose amd Tossed so far. I moved McDonald's to the lower section.
Click to expand...
McDonalds is weird with Apple Pay and AmEx. My local one has Kiosks. Apple Pay via Amex doesn't work but using an actual Amex card via contactless works fine on the same terminal.
 
reclusive46 said:
McDonalds is weird with Apple Pay and AmEx. My local one has Kiosks. Apple Pay via Amex doesn't work but using an actual Amex card via contactless works fine on the same terminal.
Click to expand...

This is the same for me at TESCO (and my local one has very new contactless terminals); normal Amex contactless payments (with the physical card) work; Apple Pay transactions with my Amex card don't. I have friends who are able to use Apple Pay at TESCO (with non-Amex cards), so the problem seems to be between Amex and Apple, rather than being anything to do with TESCO?

I am using an Apple Watch with watchOS 1.x paired to an iPhone 5 running iOS 8.x. I will try with watchOS 2 and iOS 9.x when I can, but I am pretty sure it worked for my friends when they were still using the same versions of the software as I am, so I don't think that's the problem.

I was able to use Amex-based Apple Pay at the Barbican centre, but that's the only place it's actually worked for me so far. It's not too big a deal at TESCO because I have to go into my IRL wallet for my Clubcard, but these experiences are really denting my confidence in Apple Pay (possibly unfairly to Apple) in general... would be good to get to the bottom of it.
 
matatk said:
It's not too big a deal at TESCO because I have to go into my IRL wallet for my Clubcard
Click to expand...

Why not use the Clubcard APP ? You have 2 types of barcodes in there and they work at the self-checkout.
I have the same issue with AMEX Apple Pay and TESCO. It looks like they don't recognise the AMEX issued Apple Pay card numbers. Have the same issues at Boots and Starbucks and what is weird, it stopped working at the Post Office.
 
Thank goodness for this post. I always use Amex contactless of McDonald's and wondered why Apple Pay with Amex didn't work.
Any ideas why contactless Amex IS accepted but it doesn't work via Apple
Pay?
 
Update based on my limited experience - Co-Op food do not seem to take Amex over Apple Pay (confirmed by AmEx customer support). I also experienced issues at Boots and again the AmEx customer support mentioned they were having issues. Hopefully it's sorted out soon.
 
I am very disappointed in Apple Pay and Amex.
I appreciate not all stores accept Amex but I think if a card is accepted onto the Apple Pay system then it should be enabled for everywhere that accepts Apple Pay without the user having to also carry around the physical card or a printed list of where your Apple Pay with Amex might be allowed
One of the conveniences of Apple Pay is the speed and simplicity of the transaction as it stands Apple Pay is currently a very very poorly implemented payment system - and that is a shame - and an entirely avoidable shame.
 
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AshleyHredone said:
I am very disappointed in Apple Pay and Amex.
I appreciate not all stores accept Amex but I think if a card is accepted onto the Apple Pay system then it should be enabled for everywhere that accepts Apple Pay without the user having to also carry around the physical card or a printed list of where your Apple Pay with Amex might be allowed
One of the conveniences of Apple Pay is the speed and simplicity of the transaction as it stands Apple Pay is currently a very very poorly implemented payment system - and that is a shame - and an entirely avoidable shame.
Click to expand...

I agree, that is why I will close my amex card after I get the year renewal points this year.
 
catean said:
I agree, that is why I will close my amex card after I get the year renewal points this year.
Click to expand...
And I am so glad I found this thread you can definitely add Tesco and cafe Nero as two stores that definitely do not accept Apple Pay with Amex i will be surprised if you find 20% of stores that accept Apple Pay using your Amex card had a row with customer services when challenged they could not with 100% certainty give me ANY store that accepts pay on the list not 1?
 
I was starting to think it was just my account that was having issues!

Can confirm Morrisons accepts Apple Pay and Amex but not Amex via Apple Pay.
 
kiranmk2 said:
Update based on my limited experience - Co-Op food do not seem to take Amex over Apple Pay (confirmed by AmEx customer support). I also experienced issues at Boots and again the AmEx customer support mentioned they were having issues. Hopefully it's sorted out soon.
Click to expand...
Six months on and Boots seems to take Amex via Apple Pay now, but Co-Op foods still doesn't - it gives the message that the card needs to be verified by PIN. Very frustrating as Co-op does work with Apple Pay and contactless Amex, but not together!
 
Tesco supports Apple Pay (in stores with contactless terminals) and Amex but not Amex via Apple Pay.
 
heres a weird one
I purchased a coffee in cafe Nero over a week ago using contactless Amex and it’s still not shown on app. Not even pending.
Might be a free coffee :/))
Every purchase up to now at other retailers instantly shows on the app plus I get a push notification of the transaction but had nothing from cafe Nero.
Anyone else had this?
 
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