Using Apple Pay with Rewards Earning Credit Cards

I'm not usually an early adopter in the world of technology, but I made an exception today and downloaded the newest iOS 8.1 update on my iPhone 6 which enabled me to try out Apple Pay. This is (somewhat) relevant to miles and points because you can store different credit cards in your Apple Pay account and use those to pay at select stores to maximize various category bonuses without having to actually have them in your physical wallet.

I can say that I have successfully used Apple Pay to buy lunch. My 64-year-old dad cracked up at me buying lunch with a cell phone.

According to MacWorld, the credit cards that currently work with Apple Pay are issued by:

• American Express
• Bank of America
• CapitalOne
• Chase
• Citi
• MasterCard
• Visa
• Wells Fargo

I thought I remembered seeing it was just Visa-issued Chase cards that work, but I haven't tried to add a Chase MasterCard yet. The stores that MacWorld listed as being early Apple Pay adopters are:

• Aeropostale
• American Eagle Outfitters
• Babies 'R' Us
• BJ's Wholesale Club
• Bloomingdale's
• Champs Sports
• Chevron and Texaco, including retail stores like ExtraMile
• The Disney Store
• Duane Reade
• Foot Locker, including Kids Foot Locker, Lady Foot Locker, House of Hoops, and Run by Foot Locker
• Footaction
• Macy's
• McDonald's
• Nike
• Office Depot
• Panera Bread
• Petco and Unleashed by Petco
• RadioShack
• Six:02
• Sports Authority
• Subway
• Toys 'R' Us
• Walgreens
• Wegmans
• Whole Foods Market

Daily Newsletter

Reward your inbox with the TPG Daily newsletter

Join over 700,000 readers for breaking news, in-depth guides and exclusive deals from TPG’s experts

Email address

Sign up

By signing up, you will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.

Stores that are said to roll-out Apple Pay later this year:

• Anthropologie
• Free People
• Sephora
• Staples
• Urban Outfitters
• Walt Disney World Resort

Steps to use Apple Pay:

• You have to have one of the newer devices like the iPhone 6 or 6 Plus.
• Update to iOS 8.1 that was released today
• Go into the Passbook app and add a credit card (or two). You can use the camera to scan the card number or enter it in manually. The cards with the info printed on the back like the Chase Sapphire Preferred did not work with the camera for me so had to be entered manually.
• Some cards like my Amex automatically worked while others were only activated after I entered a code that was emailed to me.
• Hold the phone near the terminal to pay and then verify with your thumb print or four digit code. You can select between the different credit cards you have added pretty easily.
• It took a few extra seconds to process, but the transaction went through and displays as a recent transaction in my Apple Pay account.

I used Apple Pay successfully at Panera for lunch and hope to try it out at some other stores on the list soon. Apple Pay would get really interesting for me if you could add prepaid cards or if you could use an iTunes balance to pay at other stores. I have read that using prepaid cards is likely to come later for Apple Pay. For now I can't imagine this is a game changer for those with multiple rewards earning credit cards, but maybe it's a start.

Have you used Apple Pay with your rewards earning credit cards?