Apple Pay Lands 22 Credit Unions

By Roy Urrico CU Times May 06, 2015

Apple announced 24 new participating Apple Pay issuers, including 22 credit unions. More than 155 credit unions out of less than 250 issuers offer the service.

Among the new credit union issuers are the $415 million Bellwether Community Credit Union in Manchester, N.H.; the $243 million Benchmark Federal Credit Union, in West Chester, Penn; the $15 million Blackhawk Community Credit Union in Beaver Falls, Penn.; the $2 billion CommunityAmerica CU in Kansas City, Mo.; the $2 billion Community First CU in Appleton, Wis.; the $143 million Connections CU in Pocatello, Idaho, the $164 million cPort CU in Portland, Maine; the $140 million Denver Fire Department FCU; the $148 million Electro Savings CU in St. Louis; the $1.1 billion Elements Financial FCU in Indianapolis; the $448 million First Financial CU in Albuquerque, N.M.; the $541 million Greater Nevada CU in Carson City, Nev.; the $485 million Harvard University Employees CU in Cambridge, Mass.; the $665 million Interra CU IN Goshen Ind.; the $1.3 billion Kern Schools FCU in Bakersfield, Calif.; the $1.6 billion Nusenda CU in Albuquerque, N.M.; the $533 million People's Trust FCU in Houston; the $1.7 billion Premier America CU in Chatsworth, Calif.; the $505 million Premier Members FCU in Boulder, Colo.; the $2.2 billion SAFE Credit Union in Folsom, Calif.; the $248 million Scient FCU in Groton, Conn.; and the $358 million Tucson FCU in Tucson, Ariz.

Apple Pay is a mobile payment and digital wallet service by Apple Inc. that lets users make payments using the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, Apple Watch-compatible devices (iPhone 5 and later models), iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3. Apple Pay does not require Apple-specific contactless payment terminals and works with Visa's PayWave, MasterCard's PayPass and American Express's ExpressPay terminals.

When members add a credit or debit card to Apple Pay, the actual card numbers are not stored on the device or on Apple servers. Instead, each transaction receives its own unique device account number. The device then encrypts and securely stores the number. Each transaction receives a one-time, unique, dynamic security code, instead of using the security code from the back of the card.

Discover Financial Services signed an agreement with Apple that will allow Discover cardholders in the U.S. to set up contactless payments in stores with NFC-enabled payment terminals using Apple Pay.

On the merchant side, Apple most recently announced support from 10 retailers including GameStop and T-Mobile. Home Depot said it has plans to officially adopt Apple's service for in-store payments.

For the next version, Apple Pay 2.0, reports indicate that the Apple Pay software will fine-tune the platform, to include new features such as browser based payment methods and will enable users to pay through international merchants.