[NewsPoster]

Apple on Wednesday added another 40 US banks and credit unions to its list of supporting financial partners and card issuers, bringing the total for the United States to 792, and the worldwide total cracking 800 for the first time, at 809 (American Express in each country is counted as a separate entity, and the single supported store loyalty card, Kohl's is included in the US total). Despite this, a new study by InfoScout shows that usage of Apple Pay dropped by nearly 50 percent on Black Friday.

The study, which did not look at in-app purchases made through Apple Pay, found that only 2.7 percent of Apple Pay-eligible transaction on Black Friday were actually conducted using Apple Pay, after polling 300,000 users, compared to 4.9 percent of such purchases on the same occasion last year. Slow merchant acceptance in the US is seen as the principle limiting factor, though the strong growth in online ordering from traditional merchants like Best Buy or Target -- who's apps accept Apple Pay -- may have also played a role in the decline, since such purchases weren't counted.

In the US, Apple Pay use appears to be most popular at restaurants such as McDonald's and Panera Bread, with most consumers unaware of many merchants that accept Apple Pay in other retail stores, such as Macy's and Staples. Contactless debit and credit cards, widely seen outside the US, are still a novelty that are rarely used with US consumers, though this will eventually change as merchants adopt NFC-friendly terminals, and banks issue more EMV ("chip and PIN") contactless cards to consumers.

For Apple customers, Apple Pay in retail stores is limited to the iPhone 6 or later models, or the iPhone 5s or later if using it in conjunction with the Apple Watch. The company and its partners have continued to push Apple Pay awareness on the public in the form of commercials, though ironically the service is mostly unavailable in the countries where contactless cards and POS terminals are already widespread.

American Express recently bypassed foot-dragging banking systems in Canada and Australia by supporting Apple Pay on its cards on its own, and plans to bring the service to several more countries over the next year. In addition to the eventual migration of US cards and merchant POS readers, companies like Square are incorporating Apple Pay and other NFC-based payment systems into their latest card readers, which should slowly increase usage and acceptance.

The full list of new institutions supporting Apple Pay and the ability to add their cards to the Wallet software on iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watches are as follows: American Heritage Federal Credit Union, Associated Credit Union, Bangor Savings Bank, Bank of Bourbonnais, Bank of Clovis, Bank of the Pacific, Baton Rouge Telco Federal Credit Union, BHCU, Cardinal Bank, Corning Credit Union, First Financial Credit Union, First National Bank of Trenton, First Nations Bank, and First Republic Bank.

Also included are Flint Area School Employees Credit Union, Glass City Federal Credit Union, Guaranty Bank and Trust Company, Hawthorn Bank, Hills Bank and Trust Company, Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union, Leader Bank N.A., Michigan Tech Employees Federal Credit Union, Midcoast Federal Credit Union, Oatworth Capital Bank, Ohio Valley Bank, Partnership Financial Credit Union, Penn Liberty Bank, Police and Fire Federal Credit Union, and Prime Meridian Bank.

Rounding out the list of new institutions are Reading Cooperative Bank, Republic Bank, Section 705 Federal Credit Union, Secured Advantage Federal Credit Union, Southern Bank, Southwest Missouri Bank, TowneBank, West Plains Bank and Trust Company, WesTex Federal Credit Union, Wilmington Savings Fund Society, and WSFS Bank.

[FreshFacedRecruit]

some1 needs 2 do a 'market research' project on Apple Pay attempted usages. Been more than a year, and still the few places that supposedly accept AP, have (in my experiences) had constant and repetitive problems in getting AP to work properly, with constant "denied" or other authorization problems. This maybe (can only speculate the reasons) due to the major credit card/bank companies that have IT dept that don't know their proverbial ***** from a whole in the ground as far a competency. I spent 45+min in a local chain store grocery (Trader Joe's), on the phone with US Bank fraud dept that had flagged my acct and denied purchases. I added Discover IT card and had similar problems. It seems unrelated (directly, but could b problematic of those bank IT dept in general) but the 3rd party verification/fraud detection software being used by the major CC & debit card vendors has utterly screwed up the entire process.

Guess that is over reaction to the hacking of at fault Target, Home Depot, etc, but denying my $1.83 purchase @another local mkt, because I went back to same 10min after I forget to buy a needed item, then having denied by Discover for "suspicious" activity, as potential fraud is beyond absurd. Who writes this craptastic AI, dumbasdoorknobs software???

So I am not surprised by lack of Apply Pay being used, I can't use it for most of what I buy (works flawlessly @Macy's

[Charles Martin]

FFR: don't worry about it, your post wasn't too long for a regular post, that's fine. I'll clean up the other ones.

Sorry you are having problems at some places (but not Macy's). That's probably down to poor training of employees. In Canada, I find that it occasionally takes a second "try" for it to take, but when it works it takes literally one second to register (I mostly use my Apple Watch for this). Quite a few places I've tried (Panera Bread in the US, Starbucks in Canada) it works great every time.

[Makosuke]

Well, I can say that I personally use ApplePay at every business I usually shop at that accepts ApplePay, and actively avoid a couple of chains (CVS, mostly) that doesn't except it in favor of competitors that do. In fact, of the five main stores I do my weekly shopping at, I can use ApplePay at three of them. I'm pretty sure a fourth has NFC on their terminals based on the model, but apparently it's not turned on.

The irony is that of those three--two local grocery stores and a small local pharmacy--none of them officially accept ApplePay. It works only because they upgraded to NFC-equipped terminals, and ApplePay works fine.

But in one of the three cases, the terminal doesn't even indicate NFC is turned on--I only discovered it by hopeful testing--and a second just has a green dot on the screen hinting it will work if you know what that means (the third has an NFC logo on the store side of the terminal, if you're looking).

Worse, none of the cashiers at any of those stores have any idea what ApplePay (or even contactless payments) is. Most are surprised it works, and if you ask they don't think it will, explicitly tell you it won't, or don't even know what contactless payment is.

Point being, aside from the "big name" chains that Apple advertises, the cashiers at stores are woefully under informed about how you can pay for stuff. It works in a lot of locations, but unless you're actively trying to figure out where, you'd never have any idea of that fact.

[pairof9s]

Makosuke is right...for the most part, you can't find places that promote it much less inform their staff about it. It has from the outset been ApplePay's Achille's Heel...dearth of merchants. It will stay that way for as long as the case may be.

For those of us like Makosuke and I, the experience of using ApplePay is wonderful...I've even used when I completely forgot my wallet on a grocery run. In a bit of irony, perhaps Samsung Pay and it's ability to use any type of credit card terminal will have a halo effect for ApplePay by broadening public perception & use of smartphone payments.

One thing is for certain, every time I use ApplePay, the clerk or other nearby customers always react the same..."WOW, that's so cool!"

[I-ku-u]

One thing I run in to often is when I try to use Apple Pay, at any place other than Apple's stores, is that it's followed with a signature request. Which makes the process more tedious than if I hadn't used Apple Pay, so I'm discouraged from using it even tho' it works "the way it works" according to the clerks.

[Charles Martin]

I-ku-u: I don't know where you are, of course, but that should not be happening at all unless your purchase totals more than $100 (US/Canada) or $50 (UK, elsewhere). I've had great success using Apple Pay in countries where it isn't officially supported, and have yet to be asked for a signature (but my purchases are generally small, under $50).

[lkrupp]

People don't trust the technology and all it takes is a single incident where the Apple Pay transaction doesn't work for them to stop using it. You're standing there in line with many other shoppers behind you, you tap to pay and the terminal chokes or denies the transaction. The clerk stands there with 'that' look on their face, the shoppers behind you start to fidget, and you fumble around to get your 'real' credit card out of your wallet.