Amex via ApplePay rejected by POS terminals

[andyrb]

I have my Amex card set up in ApplePay. Works well most of the time.

However, I've found that it's been rejected by the POS terminal at some regular places I go to. The sports club, my doctor, etc. All of whom say "yeah, we should take Amex". Terminal says no. I give up and put it on a Visa card instead.

Last week I was at the sports club, and absentmindedly pulled out my physical Amex card and tapped that against the POS terminal. It worked!

Later that day I was at the doctor. Tried the physical card again, which worked. Was at another doctor the following day, where the Amex ApplePay attempt had previously been rejected. That worked too.

So, for whatever reason, these terminals are rejecting the ApplePay card, but happily taking the physical one. Anyone else experienced this, and/or have an explanation?

The only commonality I can find is all of these places use third-party terminals, like Tyro.

 

[Princess Fiona]

My Amex works almost everywhere on Apple Pay

 

[justinbrett]

It used to be a thing some places wouldn't let you tap an Amex, you'd have to insert it. I think it was so you could accept the hefty surcharge.

I don't see that much anymore though.

 

[Franky]

I have my Amex card set up in ApplePay. Works well most of the time.

However, I've found that it's been rejected by the POS terminal at some regular places I go to. The sports club, my doctor, etc. All of whom say "yeah, we should take Amex". Terminal says no. I give up and put it on a Visa card instead.

Last week I was at the sports club, and absentmindedly pulled out my physical Amex card and tapped that against the POS terminal. It worked!

Later that day I was at the doctor. Tried the physical card again, which worked. Was at another doctor the following day, where the Amex ApplePay attempt had previously been rejected. That worked too.

So, for whatever reason, these terminals are rejecting the ApplePay card, but happily taking the physical one. Anyone else experienced this, and/or have an explanation?

The only commonality I can find is all of these places use third-party terminals, like Tyro.

I have had similar problems, but have never looked to see which type of terminal was being used, will do so in the future. The issue is becoming less of a problem though....

 

[jb747]

It works happily in most places. I expect that the terminals that are an problem are issued by a specific bank that doesn't like the idea of Amex.

 

[Lynda2475]

It works happily in most places. I expect that the terminals that are an problem are issued by a specific bank that doesn't like the idea of Amex.

More likely doesn't like Apple Pay, if physical card works fine on same terminal. I believe Apple take a cut, they certainly do for in app purchases.

 

[andyrb]

More likely doesn't like Apple Pay, if physical card works fine on same terminal.

In my case, all the terminals will happily accept ApplePay with non-Amex cards, or their physical counterparts. It's just the ApplePay Amex that's the issue.

 

[hossein_au]

I have had opposite of your experience: physical AmEx being temperamental whilst ApplePay works flawlessly (where AmEx is accepted of course).

 

[SeaWolf]

Have you tried just removing the card from ApplePay and then adding it back in again? I know that sounds simplistic but if there's any kind of issue with the virtual card, this will cause a new one to get set up from scratch.

 

[andyrb]

Have you tried just removing the card from ApplePay and then adding it back in again?

I haven't, as I really didn't think it was an ApplePay issue in itself. One of the places I've had problems at was actually the very first place I tried to pay with Amex when I got the card.

That said, I'll try that and see how it goes.

 

[Brucetiki]

Besides a couple of places looking like they'll take Amex but don't (ie the Amex logo appears on the EFTPOS screen, but the transaction declines), I don't have any major issues with Amex being accepted where it's meant to be accepted.

The one big exception is Adelaide Oval. Their old, manned, tills all took Amex, however last season they moved to self serve checkouts, which don't accept Amex (despite advertising that all major cards are accepted)

 

[equus]

There are some terminal peculiarities with Amex cards. As others have said, at some merchants it won't accept contactless Amex, but needs to be inserted. I have seen other merchants with multiple terminals, and Amex declined at one, and staff immediately respond - that particular terminal won't process Amex, we need to use the other one. Same business, same merchant, just the different terminals.

 

[andyrb]

An update on this:

I haven't yet removed the card from ApplePay and re-added it.

What is strange is some of the places that were rejecting Amex via ApplePay are suddenly accepting it. There's been no change at their end and no change with me. It's really weird.

Last week I bought something at Petbarn and their POS terminal rejected Amex. Emailed their CS about it and was told "eh, it should have worked, we accept Amex!". That was via ApplePay; I was in a rush and didn't think to try with the physical card.

 

[snabbu]

Most likely it's a setup issue with the terminal. Clearly Amex is accepted by the merchant (as the physical card worked) which points to the terminal (Tyro was mentioned in the OP) not being set up by the acquirer correctly, or the merchant specifically not wanting to accept Amex Apple Pay (unlikely).

There are flags in the configuration to accept different payment types and sub types, which are often missed. In the OP's specific example it was Amex Card Present vs Amex Apple Pay which indicates the terminal was configured to accept Amex Card present but not Amex Apple Pay.

Hard to say exactly without looking at setup/logs/raw data/etc but what the OP described is quite common.