Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
By Kevin Woodward
Cardholders yearning to load their Discover Financial Services cards into Apple Pay have less than a week to wait. Discover announced Wednesday that its cards will work with Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay beginning Sept. 16, the same day Apple releases an updated version of its mobile operating system.
To motivate usage, Discover is offering its cardholders an extra 10% cash back on up to $10,000 of in-store purchases. Those with Miles, Discover’s travel-rewards program, will get an extra 10 miles per dollar spent on up to $10,000 of in-store purchases. Both incentives expire Dec. 31.
Discover says its cardholders using an iPhone 6, 6 Plus, Apple Watch, and Apple’s upcoming iPhone 6s and 6s Plus smart mobile devices, can add their cards to Apple Pay once those devices are upgraded to iOS 9. If they already have a Discover card on file with iTunes, they just need to enter the card’s security code to add it to Apple Pay.
Discover is the last of the four major card brands to enable Apple Pay for its cards. At Apple Pay’s launch a year ago, Discover said it was in discussions with Apple.
Then in April, Discover announced Apple Pay availability this fall. At that time, Discover said it had just started the integration with Apple Pay after signing an agreement with Apple.
Apple’s iOS 9 has been expected to debut Wallet, the new name for Passbook, Apple’s card- and ticket-storage app Passbook, and to add support for retailers’ loyalty programs, but Apple executives made no mention of either change during an event Wednesday to introduce the new Apple devices. An upgrade to Apple Maps supposedly will show merchant locations that accept Apple Pay.
Discover also is making its cards available in Samsung Pay, the mobile payment service expected to debut Sept. 28. Discover is working with Google Inc. to be available in Android Pay.
