Can You Put an Apple Gift Card on Apple Pay?
Apple Pay is a convenient and secure way to make payments using your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. One of the benefits of Apple Pay is that you can load it with your Apple gift cards. However, you may be wondering if you can put an Apple gift card on Apple Pay. The answer is yes, but there are some important considerations to keep in mind.
Do You Need to Set Up a Wallet in Apple Pay?
To add an Apple gift card to Apple Pay, you don’t need to set up a Wallet in the classical sense. Instead, you can simply add your gift card to the Wallet app on your iPhone or iPad. Here’s how:
- Open the Wallet app on your iPhone or iPad.
- Tap "Buy Now" and then "Add Card".
- Select "Gift Card" from the list of available card types.
- Choose your gift card and confirm the addition.
Will Your Gift Card Work on Apple Pay?
The answer is yes, your Apple gift card will work on Apple Pay. However, there are some important considerations to keep in mind:
- Expiration Date: Make sure your gift card’s expiration date is valid for at least six months from the date of purchase. If your card has expired, it will not work on Apple Pay.
- Gift Card Type: Only standard Apple gift cards that don’t have any special offers or additional terms can be added to Apple Pay. You cannot add Apple Gift Cards with any kind of cards that has been sent as a gift to someone and is not used or has no intended recipient**.
- Physical Card: The card must be a physical card, not a digital one that you can load into your Wallet. No Apple Gift Cards can be loaded from the Wallet app.
Will Apple Pay Support Prepaid Cards?
Apple Pay has officially announced that it will support all the standard gift cards and also the contactless payment cards and the regular American Express and Visa cards that are already offered by Apple. However, if you have a specific kind of card that is unique in terms of how it works (because it is not the gift card and it’s not, even though there are no other specifics about this kind of card that would allow you to load it using Apple Pay**), then Apple will not be able to support that specific card type.
Can You Get the Gift Card Debit First
The best way to determine whether a gift card can be added to Apple Pay is to see if it is offered by Apple first and also whether or not the customer support for it allows you to know. If Apple gift cards can be purchased at any of the Apple Stores using Apple Pay first (as a more modern retailer after pre-orders), and if the customer support for the gift card says it can be used, then then gift cards can be used on Apple Pay.
Still, do not wait for the customer support and your gift card can never be added to Apple Pay.