UPDATE 9/18/2015: Discover’s Apple Pay promotion now explicitly excludes gift cards. Please see details here.
Last week, Discover announced that support for Apple Pay would begin on September 16th (Wednesday). To encourage its use, they further announced that, through December 31 2015, customers who pay with their Discover card using Apple Pay will earn an extra 10% Cashback Bonus (or an extra 10 miles per dollar) on up to $10,000 in purchases. That, in itself, would be pretty exciting, but this deal also overlaps with an ongoing promotion giving Discover cardholders double rewards for a year. By stacking these two deals, Discover customers can get a total of 20% back on all Apple Pay purchases (10% back now and 10% later) in addition to rewards normally earned by their credit card.
Full coverage of this combination of deals can be found here: The NEW Deal of the Year: Preparing for Discover Apple Pay and $2,000.
What is the “Deal of the Year”?
There are two great deals here: The Apple Pay 10% rebate; and the double rewards for a year offer. It is the combination of those two deals that I refer to as the “deal of the year.”
How do I enroll in Double Rewards for a Year?
Currently, this offer is available only to new cardholders. The offer began with the unveiling of the Discover It Miles card. As a result, all Discover It Miles cardholders are enrolled in this offer. The offer was later opened up to new and existing cardholders of other Discover cards, but Discover then stopped allowing existing cardholders to enroll. If you are unsure whether or not you are enrolled, simply call the number on the back of your Discover card and ask.
If you are not currently enrolled, the only way to enroll is to sign up for a new Discover card.
How do I enroll in the Apple Pay deal?
You do not have to enroll in this offer. Simply add your Discover card to Apple Pay on your qualifying device and then use Apple Pay through the end of this year to make in-store purchases. As long as your Discover card is the selected payment card within Apple Pay, you should automatically get 10% cashback (or an extra 10X miles) from Discover.
Is my Discover card eligible for the Apple Pay deal?
All Discover consumer credit cards are eligible. I believe this leaves out only business cards, gift cards, and debit cards.
If I have two Discover cards, can I earn twice the rewards?
Discover says yes.
How many Discover cards can one person have?
Two. Once you’ve had your first Discover card for more than a year, you can apply for a second one.
How do I get Apple Pay?
You will need either an iPhone 6 or an Apple Watch linked to an iPhone 5 or iPhone 6.
How do I add my Discover card to Apple Pay?
The press release describes the process as follows:
After upgrading for free to iOS 9, Discover cardmembers can go to the Wallet app to get started. If cardmembers already have a Discover card on file with iTunes, all they need to do is enter the security code, or they can choose to add a new Discover Card.
Why can’t I add my Discover card to Apple Pay?
Discover support for Apple Pay begins on Wednesday, September 16th. Until then, you won’t be able to add your Discover card to Apple Pay. Based on the language in the press release, it sounds like you will also have to upgrade your phone to iOS 9 before adding your Discover card. We’ll see. Its possible that they’re simply trying to encourage upgrading your phone’s iOS version. On Wednesday I’ll try adding my Discover card to Passbook, without first upgrading to iOS 9, to see what happens.
Can I add my spouse’s Discover card to my Apple Pay?
Yes, that should work. I added my wife’s Amex card and Bank of America card to my Apple Pay account without any problem. I was then able to use Apple Pay in stores to buy things (including gift cards) with my wife’s cards – with her permission, of course. Your spouse will be alerted that their card has been added to Apple Pay.
Can I add multiple Discover cards to one iPhone?
Yes. I can’t try this until support for Discover appears on Wednesday, but I’ve added multiple cards from Amex without trouble so I expect that Discover will be the same. One caution: it may be difficult to distinguish the two cards within the Wallet app. For that reason, it may make more sense to do one card at a time.
Can I add Discover, Visa, MasterCard, or Amex gift cards to Apple Pay?
In my experience, no.
Can I get an iPhone 6 for free? Can I get one cheap?
Yes, you can! One approach is to signup for the Citi AT&T Access More credit card. Details can be found here: The NEW Deal of the Year: Preparing for Discover Apple Pay and $2,000.
Options for getting a discounted phone, or a free phone for a month, can be found in this Big Habitat post: 9-11-15 Need an iphone 6 for up to one month for free? Here’s how….
Will in-app Apple Pay purchases count for 10% cashback?
Discover says no. There’s always a chance that it will work anyway, but I wouldn’t count on it. On the other hand, Discover’s rep, Cassie, got the starting date of the promo wrong, so who knows…
Can I use an iPad with Apple Pay?
Some iPad models do support Apple Pay, but only for in-app purchases. So, no, that won’t help you with this deal unless Cassie (see above) was wrong when she said that in-app charges do not qualify.
Will stores allow large gift card purchases to be made with Apple Pay?
Yes. I can’t promise that your local stores will allow it, but it has worked for me. In the past few days I tried Apple Pay at several merchants in the southeast Michigan area. In each case I brought a variable load Visa gift card to the register, asked to load $500, and paid with Apple Pay. I had no problems.
Which stores accept Apple Pay?
Apple provides a list of stores accepting Apple Pay. The list includes interesting stores such as:
- BI LO
- Duane Reade
- Meijer
- ToysRUs
- Walgreens
- etc…
However, the list is not complete. I found Apple Pay at Rite Aid, for example, even though it is not on the list.
Look for this logo in stores that you frequent:
When you find the icons, try out Apple Pay. The icons alone don’t prove that the technology is currently in-place and working. I tried a couple of stores that showed an icon like the one on the left, but they didn’t work. For example, see the photo of the register at my local CVS store:
I tried buying gift cards at CVS with Apple Pay. At first, the register seemed to accept it, but then a message appeared that said something like “this register does not support contactless payments”.
Where can I buy $500 Visa or MasterCard gift cards and pay with Apple Pay?
The answer to this will vary by location. I had success at a couple of different drugstores and a toy store.
What types of $500 gift cards are available?
In my area, I found only Vanilla brand Visa or MasterCard gift cards. There are pros and cons to these cards.
Pros:
- Some Vanilla card fees are only $4.95 per card. That’s $1 cheaper than most competing variable load cards.
- Upon first use, you can use any 4 digits as the PIN so there is no need to write down or memorize a PIN.
- One Vanilla cards do not have the word “gift” written on their face so they may be accepted in more places.
Cons:
- Vanilla gift cards can’t be used at Walmart to load Bluebird or Serve.
How can I liquidate Vanilla Visa or MasterCard gift cards?
Here are a few options:
- Use for regular spend.
- Use to pay bills wherever credit cards are accepted.
- Use as debit card to reload Serve at Family Dollar.
- Use to reload REDbird at Target (note: some Target stores do not accept gift cards as payment, so YMMV)
- Use to pay friends through a service like Venmo or Paypal. You will likely incur a fee, but since you will get at least 10% back for the purchase of the gift card, a 3% fee won’t kill you.
- Use to pay bills that are not normally payable by credit card via a service like Plastiq. As above, you will incur a fee, but it could be well worth it.
See also: Beginner’s guide to buying & liquidating Visa & Mastercard gift cards.
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[…] Quick background: Discover is currently running two overlapping promotions: an extra 10% cash back for Apple Pay purchases made through December 31st, plus double all cash back for a year. Each promotion is amazing on its own. Taken together, they’re fantastic. You can get 20% back on all Apple Pay purchases, in addition to your usual credit card rewards! But… until now, we didn’t know whether or not gift card purchases would work… You can find full details about the promotions here and here. […]
-does anyone have a link to any discover webpage or a screen shot that actually shows “10%” please?
-when is the 10% cash back supposed to post? each statement or in january, 2016?
thanks!
Details can be found here: https://www.discover.com/credit-cards/help-center/faqs/apple-pay.html#q22
Discover now tells me “next statement, 60 days after purchase”
thanks for the link.
so whats the game plan when discover does not produce the promised cash back in january?
Raise hell???
Still not seeing any Apple Pay/Discover cashback on ANY of my Apple Pay purchases on my Discover statement. Any clue whats going on?
Discover says that the credits will take 60 days after purchase, then you have to wait for your next statement
Hi, which stores are you buying Vanilla Reload cards at? Office Depot and Walgreens have always hassled me about it in the past so I stopped doing it.
I think you mean Vanilla Visa / MasterCards? I buy them at Walgreens, Rite Aid, CVS (but not with Apple Pay), Toys R Us
Toys R Us sells $500 Visa gc? Are there are credit cards that give a bonus on toy stores?
Oh I see what you mean. Yes I was getting those confused. Thanks!
I tried this at Rite Aid and Walgreens in CA
I did not get the message on my iphone saying GC’s are excluded
My statement closes tomorrow
How will I know that I have been awarded 10 miles/$ for using Apple Pay?
Thanks
Raghu
That is unknown. However, someone stated earlier that any purchases made within 5 days of the closing would not have the bonus posted until the NEXT statement. There may be an extra line for the ApplePay bonus but I’m not sure anyone knows. Keep us updated. My statement closes on Saturday.
CVS and RiteAid have contact less terminals, but disabled them because they are members of CurrentC (formerly MCX) and didn’t want to pay the Apple Pay fees. This is despite CVS being one of the first contactless payment retailers back in the mid-90’s.
Rite Aid reversed course. They do support Apple Pay now.
It is not about “ApplePay Fees”, it is about interchange that banks earn on card transactions – including ApplePay – more generally. The CurrentC app was their attempt to switch to an ACH routing transaction based system, which is a flat (much lower) fee than the interchange the merchant pays for accepting cards.
It is failing miserably.
Visa and Mastercard have both agreed to waive the interchange cut they had originally planned to take on ApplePay transactions (which would have been paid by the issuing bank, not the merchant) for at least the first year… though Visa has announced it will be permanent, Mastercard is expected to follow soon.
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If my friend has an iphone 6; can i add my Discover card to his phone; buy gift cards then delete my card from his phone and still get the Discover 10% bonus (plus year end doubling) ?
Do I have to setup my friend’s phone with my thumbprint to work?
I will carry my physical card and DL to the store. ANything else I should be worried about?
I don’t know if that would work. Yes, you would need your own thumbprints scanned unless your friend went with you.
Looked through and did not see this question. What about department stores which have the 5% quarterly bonus (10% with double cash). Would it be 10% + 20% + 2% (regular purchase percent) = 32% or am I dreaming? I don’t know if there is a bonus on top of a bonus on top of a bonus. 🙂 Do you know the answer? If so, I’m all about Macy’s.
Yes, you might be correct…if you have the double cashback promo, the 5% category would eventually be 10% plus the ApplePay 10% doubled, but what stores in that category have ApplePay? Is Macy’s one of them?
On the website it says Macy’s takes Apple Pay. I’m all about meijer like the other reader, especially considering the Meijer gas station, but do the category and the Apple Pay bonuses stack? Don’t know, just guessing. How can we be sure?
Sweet!!! My guess is yes, they do, and I think they DO, but we won’t know for sure until your statement comes.
I tried Apple Pay @ Macy’s Ocean County Mall in NJ yesterday. It did not work. I called another Macy’s in Monmouth Mall and they said they accept Apple Pay. Will try that store next week. Depends on the store.
Did a quick search of bonus categories, and it says purchases made via near field communication or virtual wallets “may not be eligible.” I haven’t actually made my Macy’s purchase, since I wasn’t sure how good of a deal I was getting. I will wait to see others’ results, I guess.
This definitely should work. Discover reps have confirmed this on Twitter.
is there anyway to combine the portals with the apple pay bonus?
For example, discover deals gives 5% for purchases made thru their portal at the apple store. (doubled to 10%). Then they have the 10% (doubled to 20%) bonus if purchased in apple store using apple pay. Anyway to combine these?
Miz
The only way I can think of is to buy Apple gift cards at the Apple store or anywhere else that takes Apple pay and sells Apple gift cards (and hopefully get 20%, pending the results of the “gift cards excluded” issue), then shop through the portal and buy items with your gift cards. Note that iTunes gift cards are NOT the same as Apple store gift cards. They’re much more limited.
You can purchase the “payanywhere” reader @ the Apple store for $39.95. The 1st $5K of transactions are free. Buy two for $79.90 which gives you $10K free transactions. Do you see where I’m going w/ this? I wonder….any thoughts?
https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/3l993q/applepay_discover_payanywhere_credit_card_reader/?
Here in MI I plan to get the 22% off on family purchases and gas exclusively at Meijer which accepts apple pay. Combination of groceries, gas, household items, and holiday shopping should easily eclipse the $10,000.
No GC necessary.
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In NJ, many stores listed on the Apple site do not accept Apple Pay. Sports Authority, American Eagle, Macy’s DO NOT @ this time. The good news if we get the 10% bonus, Walgreen’s DOES accept and I did buy a $500 Vanilla Visa. The only other where I tried was Coca Cola vending which does accept. I hear that Shoprite also accepts Apple Pay and will try this weekend.
[…] Can I really buy $500 gift cards with Apple Pay? How can I get an iPhone for free? Does my Discover … – Answers to people’s most frequently asked questions about Discover’s Apply Pay promotion. […]