U.S. Bank Rounds Out Apple Pay Acceptance

Apple Pay is making further inroads with banks, having now signed up to offer the service to U.S. Bank customers, most notably those who use the bank’s FlexPerks American Express Cards.

In a press release on Wednesday (Jan. 20), the companies said that the Apple payments service is also available with the FlexPerks Travel Rewards American Express Card, the FlexPerks Select+American Express Card and the FlexPerks Reserve American Express Card.

The firms said that all credit and debit cards, across small business and consumers, issued through U.S. Bank are now compatible with the service. As has been widely reported, the card numbers used in conjunction with Apple Pay are not, in fact, stored in the device that is utilized, rather a singular device account number is assigned, encrypted and stored in the Secure Element. The advantage of this security protocol is that it can be suspended in the event a device is lost or stolen.

[bctt tweet=”All credit and debit cards, across small business and consumers, issued through U.S. Bank are now compatible with the service.”]

In addition to facilitating payments, the Apple Pay service lets users receive all benefits and rewards being offered in conjunction with the aforementioned cards. The payments service, as has been seen across other financial institutions, works with many of the more recent iPhone models (as well as the Apple Watch) that utilize Touch ID functionality. Through that function, customers avoid repetition in filling out account information that contains, for example, shipping and billing details tied to the user.

As was reported earlier this month, Apple said that its participating issuers list had grown by as much as 58 new banks, credit unions and other financial arena players, with a final tally cumulatively coming in at more than 900 at the time of the early Jan. 2016 announcement, said the company.