Amazon’s Rewards Visa Card works with Apple Pay after all. On Friday morning (Oct. 24), TechCrunch said it had numerous reports from users that their Amazon Rewards cards were no longer being rejected when they tried to register them with Apple’s new payments system.
That ended a flurry of speculation about whether Amazon and Apple were fighting over mobile payments. Last Monday, when Apple Pay went live, reports quickly surfaced that the Amazon cards couldn’t be added to customers’ digital wallets. After JPMorgan Chase, the card’s issuer, confirmed that Amazon wasn’t supporting Apple Pay — but didn’t explain why — rumors quickly circulated that Amazon’s card was the only Chase consumer Visa card that didn’t support Apple Pay (which was true) and that Amazon had specifically opted out of the program.
Some speculation pointed to the fact that Amazon launched its own phone based mobile wallet in July, in the form of the Amazon Wallet app for its own Fire Phone. However, that Amazon app isn’t exactly a competitor to Apple Pay — it’s still in beta, and currently only works with gift cards.
But by Tuesday, Amazon was telling reporters that it would support Apple Pay, but didn’t offer a timeline. By Friday morning, without further explanation or announcement, Amazon cardholders said they were able to add their cards to Apple Pay and use them in stores.
Amazon still hasn’t explained what prevented its card from being compatible when Apple Pay launched.
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