Amazing. 6 years ago, my sister bought a 23k$ new car with AMEX on her Apple Watch, in the USA, and even there she didn’t have to sign.
Last edited:
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
New Apple Cash Accounts Now Branded as Visa Cards
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Amazing. 6 years ago, my sister bought a 23k$ new car with AMEX on her Apple Watch, in the USA, and even there she didn’t have to sign.
Agreed. And the acceptance rates both domestic and international are roughly the same. I was surprised at how close both Discover and AMEX are to both MC and Visa acceptance rates. In fact I was really surprised to see that MC is now the laggard. (Discover really beefed up internationally by setting up an acceptance alliance with JCB and China Union Pay.)
My bad, I do see the logo when I double click to pay. I was looking at the regular wallet view. Also, never noticed before, when I tilt the phone forward and back the card logo changes colors to represent iridescence. Pretty cool. I use the card for getting cash to friends and family and receiving it but dont use it to pay so I guess I never noticed.
Interesting, I did the toggle off/on a few days ago and the network changed, it also propagated thru to my other devices, and the visa appeared on the thumbnail card in the info section but not on the large card in the wallet or when double clicked.
I do see the visa logo when I double click on my watch though.
Last edited:
I see the visa logo in the wallet & Apple Pay settings on my iPhone and iPad, but not on the actual Apple Cash in the wallet too
And you should also see the logo when you double-click to pay, after you authenticate with face id.
There’s Costco in the USA. For credit, they only take visa. And in Europe, I’ve heard, there are a number of places that only take Visa.
I’m using a 6S so no FaceID. But in double clicking home button with fingerprint I am performing the operation you suggest. Still, I see bupkis on the visa logo on big card tho.
Interesting thing tho. If I switch Apple Cash to be my default card, when I double click the big card appears w logo.
If I then dismiss and manually go into wallet logo isn’t there.
Switching my default back to AMEX and then calling up cards and picking AC from stack it has no logo.
It seems there’s an animation for at least my TouchID phone that didn’t get updated.
Last edited:
Costco is an unusual case with enormous leverage.
In USA it’s currently Visa only credit cards (but more kinds of debit cards) vs in Canada MC (this to maximize leverage over card metworks.)
USA used to be AMEX only but AMEX lost the bidding war to the bottom against Visa Citibank so Costco switched.
Most stores without a membership model and huge sales revenues won’t be able to replicate the sole network model.
I’m in Europe since 20 years.
First business trip here came with an AMEX card. Nearly starved. Cancelled it and got a NWA WorldPerks visa (have that same account 30 years later.)
As Europe caught up to USA on card use in mid 2000’s and NWA was bought by delta I got a new AMEX card to get SkyMiles.
I use my AMEX for everything and keep the visa just for goosing my fico score (as both my AMEX membership and Visa account date to 1992; long history means higher fico for that factor.)
As to acceptance, most places take all these cards some less for AMEX but most same for visa and MC. (I’m in Switzerland so it’s tourist land here, and in many places they even accept JCB and Chin Union, so acceptance is probably greater than in non tourist areas. So YMMV.)
One big exception to AMEX here is McD and BurgerKing in this way some little mom and pop restaurants have these global burger joints beat.)
I suspect this is because many bank-issued credit cards can also function in "debit card mode" (aka cash advance mode), and debit fees to the merchant are about half of credit card fees - so the convenience store first attempts to run the purchase through in debit card mode.
Was just checking other countries and in UK they too accept credit cards from A,M,V but in Japan Costco only take MC.
Yeah, it's funny how things like that work. When I started using Apple Pay in Canada with my U.S. Visa Debit card before it launched in Canada, I once paid for a prescription at the drug store that was well over the usual $100 contactless limit. The terminal accepted it, but spit out a receipt with a signature block. The pharmacist was actually surprised by that, but she shrugged and said with a chuckle, "Well, I guess you have to sign this..."
Then there was the cashier who wouldn't let me use Apple Pay because she thought I was trying to "hack" the terminal with my iPhone ?
However, on the flip side it was somewhat annoying as many terminals wouldn't even offer contactless payment if the transaction was over $100. I guess some retailers got tired of people trying to tap to pay, having it get declined, and then having to reset the terminal and ask them to insert their card instead. Even after Apple Pay launched in Canada that was a common problem, despite AMEX not having a tap-to-pay limit via Apple Pay (at least not when used with a modern CDCVM terminal that can tell the difference between a plastic card and an iPhone).
So I've confirmed that the new Visa Debit Apple Cash card does indeed have a zero percent foreign transaction fee. Made a few purchases over the weekend, and they all came out to the exact Visa Exchange Rate.
In preparation for a trip later this week I tried to use the tool you linked but it requires the bank fee. Is that a figure I cannot see until after the purchase?
Enter 0% ?
I've also created a shortcut for anybody who wants to check it out. It's basically just a web scraper, and it's preset to Canadian dollars, but it's not hard to change to your currency of choice as it's all embedded in the URL in the "Text" block.
Calculate VISA Exchange
www.icloud.com
Note that Visa uses a fixed daily rate that changes sometime on weekday evenings (around 7 p.m. ET based on my personal experience). It doesn't change on the weekend, which means Monday's daily rate is actually from Friday night.
Just like in Mexico. I’ve never been applied any limit when using Apple Pay with my US visa credit. Not now, not in the nearly 6 years I used it before the official launch. However, almost every single POS will ask for a signature, whether it be on the digital screen or on the paper receipt. The only two noticeable exceptions are BBVA’s card readers (portable and pinpads) and the ones at a local chain of supermarkets. And the ones at Costco only request the signature for purchases above MX$250 (approx US$12.50).
The reason is that most POS in the US and around the world haven’t been updated with the CDCVM (Consumer Device Cardholder Verification Method), which is needed for the POS to be able to tell apart a contactless card from a mobile wallet. And since they can’t tell them apart, that’s why above a preset threshold the POS will either ask for signature authentication or simply decline the payment depending on their setup.
And, of course, in Mexico the pushback from cashiers on contactless is much worse than it probably ever was in Canada. Ghe cashiers in Mexico have made up all sorts of stupid excuses to not accept it such as that the money might not make it to their bank account as easily as when paying via chip, or even that it would be illegal to pay that way. They are extremely distrustful some times. I’d say Mexico is one of the most difficult places in the world, if not the most, to use contactless. Along with the USA, where a lot of places still don’t accept it.
Last edited:
Interesting. Though mine still says "Discover" network.
All I've ever used mine for is applying Apple Card rebates to my Apple Card balance. Basically I only use my Apple Card now along with my Debit Card. Debit card to sometimes get cash back on transactions for places around here that still don't accept Apple Pay.
Thanks for the info. Will keep looking to see if mine changes networks soon.
All I've ever used mine for is applying Apple Card rebates to my Apple Card balance. Basically I only use my Apple Card now along with my Debit Card. Debit card to sometimes get cash back on transactions for places around here that still don't accept Apple Pay.
Thanks for the info. Will keep looking to see if mine changes networks soon.
What "pin" would you enter for a credit card? I understand debit cards have this, but the Apple MasterCard and my Visa credit card do not have a pin to enter.
Pins do not apply for credit card transactions. However, far too often when I go to pay for something under $20 at the convenient store with my credit card using Apple Pay, the convenient store still requires the signature, which is super annoying. Therefore, I only use my Apple Cash card when buying things that are under $20 at the convenient store to avoid this hassle. It’s a lot quicker and more efficient.
That’s true, the US refuses to use PIN for credit at all costs. However, more often than not stores will still ask for a signature when using Apple Pay regardless of the type of card used (even for Apple Card, which is funny because Goldman Sachs doesn’t have anyone’s signature on record since the application is online). Apple Cash requires netiher a PIN nor a signature so it would be more convenient in that sense.
Only in the US. Every single other country in the world does have pin for credit. Only the US refuses to have it at all costs.
So apparently this happened to some people when they were switching from Discover to Visa if Apple Pay was disabled in the middle of it (darn my impatience). It somehow corrupted my existing GreenDot (Apple Cash) accounts connection with Apple - the way it was resolved was to send me a check for my existing Apple Cash Card balance and close the old account. At that point I got an option to "Renew Apple Cash Card" and that process worked/it now functions again. Just blah.