Santander Bank in U.S. Now Supports Apple Pay With MasterCard Branded Credit and Debit Cards

[MacRumors]

Santander Bank recently announced that it is launching Apple Pay support to its customers in the United States for the first time, allowing any MasterCard branded credit or debit card distributed by Santander to be added to Apple's mobile wallet. After being added in Apple Pay, Santander MasterCard holders can use the service on a compatible iPhone to pay at participating retailers, purchase items within apps, or shop on the web.

Santander said that Apple Pay is one of many customer-focused innovations it has launched over the past few months, which include an update to the company's mobile app that added in a mobile check deposit feature as well as Touch ID log-in support. Additionally, the company mentioned that more updates will continue to roll out throughout 2017.

Santander Bank's 2.1 million customers are principally located in the northeast U.S., including Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. Santander has already introduced Apple Pay support to its customers in Spain and the United Kingdom.

"Our customers have been telling us that they want to do more on-the-go digital banking using their mobile devices," said Michael Cleary, Santander's Head of Consumer and Business Banking. "At Santander, we pride ourselves on listening to our customers. We've responded to their feedback by investing more resources in our mobile banking platform and upgrading the digital tools and services customers need to truly bank anywhere with Santander, and Apple Pay is a great example of that innovation."

The bank has set up a new Apple Pay webpage on its site to guide users through the steps needed to add a credit or debit card into the Wallet app on iPhone and iPad. As with all other Apple Pay-supported banks, the service is available on iPhone 6 and later, iPhone SE, Apple Watch, the late 2016 MacBook Pro, and iPad mini 3 or later within apps and Safari. Macs introduced in 2012 and later can also be used, but checkout will have to be confirmed through an Apple Pay-enabled iPhone or Apple Watch.

Article Link: Santander Bank in U.S. Now Supports Apple Pay With MasterCard Branded Credit and Debit Cards

 

[coffeemadmanUK]

At this stage, adding Apple Pay now is hardly listening to consumers... it's great but it's a bit late.

 

[Phogro]

Too late.. Left Santandar last year when they also ended their Extra $20 campaign.

 

[JosephAW]

Yes too late. Left them as well because they lived in the dark ages. No free checking and no Apple Pay.

 

[NeuralControl]

Santander was one of the first banks in Europe to support Apple Pay, and yet they are one of the last to do so in the US. I'm glad to see they are finally supporting Apple Pay, but they are so behind the curve.

 

[dampfnudel]

Late to the party, but as a customer contemplating leaving them, I'm not surprised. Their US operations seem to be a lower priority compared to their European operations. There are two Santander branches only minutes away by foot from my home and both are a lot less busy than all of the other banks in the area. I think they lost a lot of customers in the US after they purchased Sovereign.

 

[Sasparilla]

At this stage, adding Apple Pay now is hardly listening to consumers... it's great but it's a bit late.

Maybe its the bank that wasn't listening to its customers...they seemed to be the hangup here.

 

[coffeemadmanUK]

Maybe its the bank that wasn't listening to its customers...they seemed to be the hangup here.

... the bank is who I was referring to.

 

[tmiw]

Maybe its the bank that wasn't listening to its customers...they seemed to be the hangup here.

I originally read it as he gave up on using AP at all due to the poor retailer support in the US. I'm surprised that hasn't come up in this thread yet, actually, since it always seems to in every AP thread.

 

[Robert.Walter]

Good move by a bank that may have been bleeding more valuable than average customers to competitors that offered Apple Pay sooner.

(We saw this week how many post paid customers Verizon lost when they were slow to match the unlimited data offerings of their competitors. In the end, they offered this but won't get those lost customers back w/o incentivizing them.)

Hopefully more merchants will complete their upgrade to chip/NFC terminals. (I'm looking at you Costco and Kroger. In the meantime we shop more at your competition.)

 

[I7guy]

Better late than never.