Apple has again updated its list of Apple Pay partners by adding another 24 credit unions and banks, with a strong emphasis on credit unions in the latest additions. Personal and branded cards from the financial institutions can be added to Apple Pay in most cases, though small-business and sub-branded speciality cards may not always be compatible. Since its launch last fall, Apple Pay has nearly instantly become the most popular of the various mobile-payment services, despite only being available on the iPhone 6 (and now, Apple Watch).
In alphabetical order, the new banks and credit unions added to the Apple Pay page are as follows: Bellwether Community Credit Union, Benchmark Federal Credit Union, Blackhawk Community Credit Union, Community America Credit Union, Community First Credit Union, Connections Credit Union, cPort Credit Union, Denver Fire Department FCU, Electro Savings Credit Union, Elements Financial FCU, First Financial Credit Union, Greater Nevada Credit Union, Harvard Universities Employees Credit Union, Interra Credit Union, Kern Schools Federal Credit Union, Nusenda Credit Union, People’s Trust Federal Credit Union, Premier America Credit Union, Premier Members Federal Credit Union, SAFE Credit Union, Scient Federal Credit Union, The Bancorp Bank, Tucson Federal Credit Union, and Union Bank & Trust Company.
Merchants that upgrade their POS equipment to accept NFC-based mobile payments such as Apple Pay can generally also take other forms of contactless payments, including MasterCard’s PayWave and Google’s answer to Apple Pay, Android Pay, without any additional modifications.
Merchants are being encouraged to upgrade terminals anyway due to a forthcoming requirement to support the new EMV “chip-and-PIN” type payment cards, which contain a visible chip to help prevent fraudulent cards created based on stolen credit card numbers. Apple Pay’s system is actually seen as even more secure than the EMV cards, which can still be stolen and used — a stolen iPhone will not enable thieves to use cards stored in Passbook due to the Touch ID requirement, and lack of detail about card numbers.
