Apple Pay

Apple Pay debuting at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas by early June

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 28, 2016

Apple Pay is coming to Las Vegas hotels next month, but not for gambling, and The Cosmopolitan is leading the way. According to the hotel-casino's official announcement cited by Casino City Times, by early June the resort’s front desk, concierge, restaurants and bars will accept Apple's wireless payment method.

Cosmopolitan chief marketing officer, Lisa Marchese, states that “the arrival of Apple Pay on the Las Vegas Strip is a natural fit, offering increasingly mobile-centric, luxury travelers a streamlined and convenient experience.” The announcement marks the first local casino-resort to accept Apple Pay. The Cosmopolitan is part of Marriott's Autograph Collection of hotels.

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Home Depot to become largest retailer to support Apple Pay

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

Contrary to earlier reports today, Home Depot isn't disabling Apple Pay, it's instead rolling it out to all of its 2,000+ brick and mortar retail stores. As Bloomberg reports, this will make Home Depot the biggest retailer accepting Apple Pay to date.

This is huge news, and certainly a major turnaround from the reports that said otherwise early this morning. Home Depot, which has been subject to massive data breaches in the past, is clearly putting its chips in with Apple Pay, which is known for its ease of use and its security.

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Mobile payment consortium MCX replaces CEO

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

The Merchant Customer Exchange, better known as MCX, announced Tuesday that it's replacing its CEO. Dekkers Davidson is out, and banking veteran Brian Mooney is in as the [interim] chief executive for the consortium behind Apple Pay competitor CurrentC.

The news is interesting for a few reasons. For one, it's not common for a company developing an app to replace its CEO before the app launches to the public. And two, it comes just 1 day after MCX member Best Buy announced it would start accepting Apple Pay.

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Best Buy app now accepting Apple Pay, coming to retail stores later this year

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Best Buy announced today that it will begin supporting Apple Pay within its mobile app, effective immediately, and within its stores later this year. This is a major partnership for Apple, as it’s the first one with a member of MCX—the Walmart led consortium of retailers that are backing payment app 'CurrentC.'

A Best Buy spokeswoman told Recode that “we remain invested in MCX,” but she would not comment on when CurrentC will be available to the public and if the electronics retailer would accept it at launch. “We are actively monitoring their pilots,” she said. “It’s too early to declare whether we will take it at launch.”

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Discover announces bringing Apple Pay to cardholders this Fall

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 27, 2015

In a rather major announcement Monday, Discover, a notable Apple Pay holdout, said it will be joining the Apple Pay party this fall. The move will permit Discover cardmembers in the United States to make contactless payments in participating stores through Apple Pay using their iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch.

As a bonus, Discover cardholders will continue to receive current benefits when using Apple Pay. This marks the last of America's four major credit card networks joining Apple's mobile payments initiative.

In addition to paying in stores, “millions of cardmembers” can also use Apple Pay with their iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 when paying for goods and services within apps beginning this fall, said the company.

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Survey: Apple Pay surpasses PayPal in mobile payments

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 2, 2018

Apple Pay is picking up steam and has hit an important milestone: the service is outperforming PayPal in mobile payments, according to a new 451 Research survey shared with iDownloadBlog on Tuesday. It's been gaining momentum in the mobile payments space since becoming available six months ago, primarily at the expense of PayPal.

The March study, conducted by 451 Research’s ChangeWave service, consisted of 4,168 respondents primarily based in North America, and looked at planned use of mobile payment applications and the issue of security.

Respondents interested in buying an Apple Watch are twice as likely (54 percent) as all other smartphone owners to say they’ll use mobile payment apps (29 percent said 'Very Likely' and 25 percent said 'Somewhat Likely').

And overall consumer interest in Samsung's mobile payments service (which is launching this summer) sits at a meager eight percent of respondents who are 'Very Likely' or 'Somewhat Likely' to use Samsung Pay in the future.

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Apple Pay reportedly launches in Canada in November, banks mulling secondary authentication

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 17, 2015

It appears that the rumor which asserted that talks about bringing Apple Pay to more countries were stalling isn't entirely accurate after all. As CNBC tweeted out on Friday, based on a Dow Jones report, Apple aims to launch Apple Pay in Canada this fall, marking the start of its international expansion of the mobile payment service.

Apparently, the Cupertino firm is in talks with the country's six biggest banks about a potential November launch for Apple Pay's first venture outside the U.S.

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Talks bringing Apple Pay to more countries are reportedly stalling

Jake Smith ∙ April 14, 2015

Apple's efforts to bring Apple Pay technology to China, a region that could help boost payment numbers, are stalling, according to Caixin Online.

Despite earlier word that a deal between Apple and China's UnionPay is close, Caixin Online says neither party has reached any agreements and no timetable for cooperation has been set.

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Apple lists 14 new merchants supporting Apple Pay, including Coke and Walt Disney

Jake Smith ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Apple has updated its list of merchants that support Apple Pay to include 14 new stores, most notably including Coca-Cola and Walt Disney World, as the Cupertino-based company works to grow its mobile payments service.

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, highlighted that Coca-Cola Vending was adding Apple Pay support during the company's "Spring Forward" media event on Monday. Cook said the beverage-giant currently has 40,000 Apple Pay-compatible machines and plans to bring that number to 100,000 by the end of 2015.

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Banks becoming more stringent on Apple Pay sign-ups following fraud

Jake Smith ∙ Updated March 2, 2018

The Wall Street Journal reports that many banks are becoming more strict on the sign-up process for adding cards to Apple Pay, as many crooks are loading stolen credit cards on the mobile payment system found on the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and soon Apple Watch.

While the Apple Pay system isn't actively creating fraud, criminals who already have stolen credit cards are able to easily load them to the mobile wallet due to lax procedures and are able to use them in-stores, evading authorities.

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