Walmart Still Doesn't Accept Apple Pay in U.S. Despite Many Customer Requests

[boyarka]

I don't exactly see why they should accept Apple Pay. Having Apple Pay support probably gouges their income severely by having an over-the-top fee.

Speaking of payment fees: I think payments should go as directly as possible. Apple is really an unnecessary man in the middle; instead the phone should just clone the bank card's info and act as an ersatz-card. Instead Apple, like many others, in their infinite wisdom and greed became a man in the middle nobody asked for.

 

[lartola]

I thought if you had an NFC terminal then you accept Apple Pay.

And you were correct. Places that don’t take apple pay in the US it’s because they either still don’t have an NFC terminal or, like Walmart, have the terminal but purposefully disable the NFC feature so they can’t take contactless either, not just apple pay.

 

[assb10yr]

I don’t shop at places that don’t take  pay

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

They are choosing not to use it, it isn't like they are incapable of using it.

Wow, strange strategy in a world where contactless payments have been the norm for over 15 years now. I would have thought such an approach would cost them sales these days as shoppers are all about convenience. Most checkouts in supermarkets here aren’t even manned and it’s all self serve or self scan. Contactless is a must.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

The card networks can. In fact, that seems to be why Walmart had to enable contactless/apple pay only in Canada and not everywhere else where they have stores. But, even in that case, Walmart US is so stubborn that they might even prefer to stop taking cards and go cash only than turn on contactless.

That's why Walmart features Capitol One and if card companies tried to force the issue, I am pretty sure Walmart would not accept those cards. So I really fail to follow the logic why a credit card company who does business with Apple Pay would force Walmart to use Apple Pay? It's not going to happen because if that were to occur, then Walmart could force Apple to use Walmart Pay and we all know, Apple would say hell no.

People around here tend to treat Apple if it were Jesus.

 

[Marswarrior462]

That's why Walmart features Capitol One and if card companies tried to force the issue, I am pretty sure Walmart would not accept those cards. So I really fail to follow the logic why a credit card company who does business with Apple Pay would force Walmart to use Apple Pay? It's not going to happen because if that were to occur, then Walmart could force Apple to use Walmart Pay and we all know, Apple would say hell no.

People around here tend to treat Apple if it were Jesus.

More like, “people around here tend to treat Steve Jobs or Tim Cook as if they were Jesus”

 

[lartola]

I don't exactly see why they should accept Apple Pay. Having Apple Pay support probably gouges their income severely by having an over-the-top fee.

Speaking of payment fees: I think payments should go as directly as possible. Apple is really an unnecessary man in the middle; instead the phone should just clone the bank card's info and act as an ersatz-card. Instead Apple, like many others, in their infinite wisdom and greed became a man in the middle nobody asked for.

Not really. Merchants only pay fees for accepting visa, mc, etc. regardless of how the payment was submitted. No extra fee for contactless or apple pay. By disabling NFC, Walmart doesn’t save a penny. They still pay exactly the same fees because they are still accepting Visa, MC, etc via chip or walmart pay. If not even higher when using walmart pay, by turning an in person transaction into a card not present transaction.

As for the ‘man in the middle’ thing, there is a benefit to the user called privacy: apple pay ‘disguises’ your real card number by assigning a different ‘card number’ to the iphone or apple watch so the merchants don’t receive people’s actual card numbers when they pay at the register. Walmart hates this because they want to get as much information about the customers as possible to target advertising, etc, and that would be the only benefit walmart gets from disabling contactless/nfc.

 

[lartola]

That's why Walmart features Capitol One and if card companies tried to force the issue, I am pretty sure Walmart would not accept those cards. So I really fail to follow the logic why a credit card company who does business with Apple Pay would force Walmart to use Apple Pay? It's not going to happen because if that were to occur, then Walmart could force Apple to use Walmart Pay and we all know, Apple would say hell no.

People around here tend to treat Apple if it were Jesus.

The card networks don’t force apple pay per se, they mandate contactless payments to be enabled on all card readers to accept contactless cards, and they have already done it in other regions such as Europe, Canada or Australia. The moment contactless is enabled, apple pay works too unless the merchants go out of their way to specifically try to block it, like walmart did with Samsung Pay’s MST in 2020. Of course, Walmart in the US is sooo stubborn that they may refuse to enable the contactless readers and go cash only if cornered by the card networks.

 

[Biro]

Tractor Supply also refuses to do NFC, and have also changed what they carry, so they are off my list too.

I used to love Tractor Supply. Now everything in there - EVERYTHING - from clothes to tires to tools... whatever... is from China. And not the kind of Chinese factories that turn out Apple devices and other high-quality products. We're talking cheap, mystery-brand stuff. Harbor Freight level and worse.

 

[Scott6666]

I guess we BOYCOTT Walmart until they do

Too cheap to boycott these days with inflation being what it is.

 

[Blowback]

A quick search on Twitter reveals that Walmart faces numerous requests to accept Apple Pay on a daily basis, but the big-box retailer still does not accept the iPhone's tap-to-pay service at its over 4,700 stores across the United States.

Walmart has instead committed to its own payments service called Walmart Pay, available through the Walmart app on the iPhone. Instead of using NFC technology like Apple Pay and many other mobile wallets, Walmart Pay allows customers to scan a QR code displayed at checkout to pay for their purchase with a payment card stored in the app.

"We do not accept NFC and instead have implemented convenient solutions, such as Walmart Pay, that provide our customers easy, touchless payments on any smartphone," a Walmart spokesperson told MacRumors this week. "We have also invested in innovative technologies that go beyond payments, such as Scan & Go, which allow Sam's Club and Walmart+ members to bypass the checkout altogether."

There are certainly some benefits for Walmart in pushing its own mobile payments service, including getting more customers to download the Walmart app, being able to track a customer's purchase history, and avoiding Apple Pay fees, but it's clear that Walmart is ignoring one of its customers' most frequent requests as a result.

Apple Pay launched just over eight years ago, on October 20, 2014. In a press release earlier this year, Apple said that Apple Pay is accepted at more than 90 percent of U.S. retailers, with some major holdouts including Walmart, The Home Depot, Lowe's, and Kroger. Walmart did start accepting Apple Pay in Canada in late 2020.

Article Link: Walmart Still Doesn't Accept Apple Pay in U.S. Despite Many Customer Requests

YES..the store that placed video recorders into all of their ‘self-check out’ registers. The store that ‘OWNS’ a certain senator Durban and uses him to attack Visa/MC/Apple and other competitors. Oh, THAT Walmart. Surprise, surprise….

 

[lartola]

Wow, strange strategy in a world where contactless payments have been the norm for over 15 years now. I would have thought such an approach would cost them sales these days as shoppers are all about convenience. Most checkouts in supermarkets here aren’t even manned and it’s all self serve or self scan. Contactless is a must.

The US hasn’t been part of that world for the last 15 years, it’s just now starting to join the party. Neither has Mexico been, both countries where walmart has most of its stores besides Canada.

 

[boyarka]

Not really. Merchants only pay fees for accepting visa, mc, etc. regardless of how the payment was submitted. No extra fee for contactless or apple pay. By disabling NFC, Walmart doesn’t save a penny. They still pay exactly the same fees because they are still accepting Visa, MC, etc via chip or walmart pay. If not even higher when using walmart pay, by turning an in person transaction into a card not present transaction.

As for the ‘man in the middle’ thing, there is a benefit to the user called privacy: apple pay ‘disguises’ your real card number by assigning a different ‘card number’ to the iphone or apple watch so the merchants don’t receive people’s actual card numbers when they pay at the register. Walmart hates this because they want to get as much information about the customers as possible to target advertising, etc, and that would be the only benefit walmart gets from disabling contactless/nfc.

This privacy BS I do not buy. Having "anonymous" purchases basically opens the doors wide for money laundering and every other imaginable way of abusing an anonymous/cash based payment system.
That (being able to trace money) is the one of the if not THE major reason why we have electronic payments replacing cash. To undo that is nonsense.
As for Walmart's choice I stand by my claim - the is no f***ing way on earth Apple does not "milk" either the CC issuers and/or stores for Pay.

 

[lartola]

This privacy BS I do not buy. Having "anonymous" purchases basically opens the doors wide for money laundering and every other imaginable way of abusing an anonymous/cash based payment system.
That (being able to trace money) is the one of the if not THE major reason why we have electronic payments replacing cash. To undo that is nonsense.
As for Walmart's choice I stand by my claim - the is no f***ing way on earth Apple does not "milk" either the CC issuers and/or stores for Pay.

What are you talking about? apple pay is an electronic payment and it does leave a trace, it isn’t 100% anonymous like cash. The merchants don’t get your true card info when you use apple pay, but your bank/cc issuer does know where the money came from and where it went.

Also, I never said apple pay was 100% free, don’t twist my words. I said merchants don’t pay extra for accepting contactless payments or apple pay. Proof of this is that even merchants in countries where apple pay hasn’t officially rolled out can still take apple pay. I used apple pay like that in Mexico for 6 years with a supported US issued card. Of course, apple makes money out of apple pay, but by asking banks/card issuers who allow their customers to add their cards to apple pay for a cut of the fee they charge merchants for accepting credit and debit cards.

I, too, stand by what I said before, WALMART DOES NOT SAVE A PENNY BY DISABLING CONTACTLESS. They do get some benefits, but saving money worth of fees isn’t one of them.

 

[tmiw]

Not really. Merchants only pay fees for accepting visa, mc, etc. regardless of how the payment was submitted. No extra fee for contactless or apple pay. By disabling NFC, Walmart doesn’t save a penny. They still pay exactly the same fees because they are still accepting Visa, MC, etc via chip or walmart pay. If not even higher when using walmart pay, by turning an in person transaction into a card not present transaction.

There are scenarios where contactless can cost a US merchant more than having that customer insert their card. For example, many POS systems are set up to always run contactless debit cards "as credit" (e.g. Visa or MC), whereas inserting will cause a PIN to be prompted and the transaction run over something like NYCE or another debit network. If the card happened to be issued by a smaller bank who's not subject to the Durbin Amendment's interchange caps (0.05% regardless of network), the merchant could be out significantly more if the card's tapped vs. inserted.

That said, that's not an Apple Pay thing specifically (and depending on your customer base, etc. may not come up much).

The card networks don’t force apple pay per se, they mandate contactless payments to be enabled on all card readers to accept contactless cards, and they have already done it in other regions such as Europe, Canada or Australia. The moment contactless is enabled, apple pay works too unless the merchants go out of their way to specifically try to block it, like walmart did with Samsung Pay’s MST in 2020. Of course, Walmart in the US is sooo stubborn that they may refuse to enable the contactless readers and go cash only if cornered by the card networks.

I don't see the networks ever mandating anything at the merchant level in the US. The mandates went into place elsewhere because a lot of places adopted EMV way before the US did and thus there were a lot of terminals floating around without the needed hardware in the first place. Meanwhile, minus a few exceptions very early on in the migration, pretty much every in-person terminal in the US at least has the hardware for it.

And that's not even getting into how the networks would likely rather fall over backwards for larger merchants than risk losing them. Note how quickly Walmart, Amazon, etc. made deals (for "undisclosed terms" of course) with the networks as soon as they started making noises about limiting card acceptance.

 

[bousozoku]

So do they not accept contactless cards?

No, you can add your card to their app and it will work without NFC.

 

[kcvpr]

And they NEVER will. Walmart is a behemoth and does what's best for Walmart. They make money off of Walmart Pay transactions with Capitol One. At one point Walmart was leaning on its suppliers not to do business with Amazon because they didn't want any of their inner dealings finding its way to Amazon.

The funniest part is all Walmarts in Canada use Apple Pay and all other nfc payments just fine.

 

[TheMountainLife]

Speaking of payment fees: I think payments should go as directly as possible. Apple is really an unnecessary man in the middle; instead the phone should just clone the bank card's info and act as an ersatz-card. Instead Apple, like many others, in their infinite wisdom and greed became a man in the middle nobody asked for.

I agree. I'm curious to why the responsibility isn't on Visa, Mastercard etc to develop and manage the way their services are accessed completely. I imagine long as you aren't using cash, they don't care since your business with them is guaranteed.

 

[lartola]

There are scenarios where contactless can cost a US merchant more than having that customer insert their card. For example, many POS systems are set up to always run contactless debit cards "as credit" (e.g. Visa or MC), whereas inserting will cause a PIN to be prompted and the transaction run over something like NYCE or another debit network. If the card happened to be issued by a smaller bank who's not subject to the Durbin Amendment's interchange caps (0.05% regardless of network), the merchant could be out significantly more if the card's tapped vs. inserted.

That said, that's not an Apple Pay thing specifically (and depending on your customer base, etc. may not come up much).



I don't see the networks ever mandating anything at the merchant level in the US. The mandates went into place elsewhere because a lot of places adopted EMV way before the US did and thus there were a lot of terminals floating around without the needed hardware in the first place. Meanwhile, minus a few exceptions very early on in the migration, pretty much every in-person terminal in the US at least has the hardware for it.

And that's not even getting into how the networks would likely rather fall over backwards for larger merchants than risk losing them. Note how quickly Walmart, Amazon, etc. made deals (for "undisclosed terms" of course) with the networks as soon as they started making noises about limiting card acceptance.

They will eventually mandate payment services providers to ensure that their merchants have contactless enabled on the card readers, but for the US it will take at least another decade because the EMV transition is far from complete. They are still using magnetic stripes a lot.

 

[bruinsrme]

Just don't buy anything expensive on their online store. Getting a refund never happens until a credit card dispute is initiated to force their hand.

That I can agree with.
I’ve ordered probably 20 things. 19 smooth, 1 return went well the other required a dispute

 

[decypher44]

After reading this thread, I wonder why the US hasn't enforced anti-monopoly laws. In my rural little town in Scotland, with a population of about 18,000 on a good day, we have 4 supermarkets, 3 large convenience stores, and 8 or so small specialist stores (organic food, local farm produce, butchers, fish mongers, etc.) within town limits. There are another 4-5 supermarkets and another 2 convenience stores within a few minutes drive in neighbouring towns and villages. There is lots of competition and choice among stores. Increasingly in the US the big companies seem to be dominating everything, and it leads to poor service like Walmart's surveillance capitalism system.

Yeah, not a good idea to form your opinions based on comments here. I live in a “smallish” suburb and have plenty of chain stores, specialty grocery stores, health food stores, small privately owned shops, etc etc etc.

 

[cableguy316]

A quick search on Twitter reveals that Walmart faces numerous requests to accept Apple Pay on a daily basis, but the big-box retailer still does not accept the iPhone's tap-to-pay service at its over 4,700 stores across the United States.

Walmart has instead committed to its own payments service called Walmart Pay, available through the Walmart app on the iPhone. Instead of using NFC technology like Apple Pay and many other mobile wallets, Walmart Pay allows customers to scan a QR code displayed at checkout to pay for their purchase with a payment card stored in the app.

"We do not accept NFC and instead have implemented convenient solutions, such as Walmart Pay, that provide our customers easy, touchless payments on any smartphone," a Walmart spokesperson told MacRumors this week. "We have also invested in innovative technologies that go beyond payments, such as Scan & Go, which allow Sam's Club and Walmart+ members to bypass the checkout altogether."

There are certainly some benefits for Walmart in pushing its own mobile payments service, including getting more customers to download the Walmart app, being able to track a customer's purchase history, and avoiding Apple Pay fees, but it's clear that Walmart is ignoring one of its customers' most frequent requests as a result.

Apple Pay launched just over eight years ago, on October 20, 2014. In a press release earlier this year, Apple said that Apple Pay is accepted at more than 90 percent of U.S. retailers, with some major holdouts including Walmart, The Home Depot, Lowe's, and Kroger. Walmart did start accepting Apple Pay in Canada in late 2020.

Article Link: Walmart Still Doesn't Accept Apple Pay in U.S. Despite Many Customer Requests

The very weird refusal to take Apple Pay really means they don't take NFC, which is a much wider variety of payments, including the chip on every credit card now. I minimize my trips to Wal-Mart (it's so depressing to shop there) but this is always annoying. Same with Lowes and Home Depot - they have even less excuse, since they have slick new self-checkouts, and no exclusive monopolistic payment system of their own. We are so close to not having to carry physical credit cards, but holdouts like these ruin it.

Whenever I get some request for feedback from these stores, I make sure to complain about the lack of NFC.

 

[Stellarspace]

What is Walmart going to do when Credit Card companies decide they're going to get rid of the strip, and the chip?
Walgreens is trying to make people not use Apple Pay as well. Now you have to manually type in your phone number, then use Apple Pay. They removed Wallet integration from the app, and they no longer have a barcode scanner on their PoS systems in their stores.

 

[zorinlynx]

I don't exactly see why they should accept Apple Pay. Having Apple Pay support probably gouges their income severely by having an over-the-top fee.

Speaking of payment fees: I think payments should go as directly as possible. Apple is really an unnecessary man in the middle; instead the phone should just clone the bank card's info and act as an ersatz-card. Instead Apple, like many others, in their infinite wisdom and greed became a man in the middle nobody asked for.

The fee for using Apple Pay is the same as any other credit card transaction. It's a normal transaction.

If they don't want to pay those fees they would have to get rid of the terminal completely and force everyone to use their crappy app.

 

[Beefbowl]

I use both Walmart Pay and Kroger Pay. Walmart Pay has consistently worked, though the button to access it in the app has moved around a few times and at one point took like three taps to get to after opening the app.

Kroger pay is less useful because it relies on the cashier scanning a QR code on your phone, and the cashiers don't seem to know what to do with it. It's very reliable in their self checkout lanes where I can just lie the phone flat on the scanner. I'd say about a third of the time I try to use it at a checkstand I wind up needing to dig out a credit card.

Neither works with the Apple Watch, which is the only real point against them.