Apple Pay Gains Support for BJ's Wholesale Club Credit Cards and 66 New U.S. Issuers

Im in favour of anyone supporting BJ's.

shouldn't it be "BJ's Wholesale Club Credit Cards and 66 New U.S. Issuers now support Apple Pay"?
it's up to the banks to support the technology, not the technology to support the banks?

Apple updated its Apple Pay participating issuers list ('https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT6288') today with support for BJ's Wholesale Club store cards, including the BJ's Perks Plus and Elite MasterCards ('https://www.bjs.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CobrandedPerk?catalogId=10201&langId=-1&storeId=10201&krypto=5gM8xRsxqYZ8LEzb7fkkgS7wNRpNAQAvJ6l3YyRuMtMQqmxY9J6XljKWpgTzFmgluN%2FeYZnNmgx%2FeTkPLTG3KA%3D%3D&ddkey=http:CobrandedPerk'), and 66 additional banks, credit unions and financial institutions in the United States.

Apple Pay is now accepted at over 850 participating issuers nationwide, and several more plan to support the NFC-based mobile payment service in the future. The newly added Apple Pay participating issuers are reflected below, but some issuers may have rolled out support earlier than today and only being reflected on Apple's website now.

The full list of new Apple Pay participating issuers:
American Community Bank of Indiana
American United Federal Credit Union
Anheuser-Busch Employees' Credit Union
Aspire Federal Credit Union
Bank of Colorado
Bank of Montgomery
Catholic Federal Credit Union
Cedar Rapids Bank and Trust
CFCU Community Credit Union
ChoiceOne Bank
Community Bank of Mississippi
Community Bank, Coast
Community Bank, Ellisville
Community Bank, North MS
Credit One Bank
D.L. Evans Bank
Dane County Credit Union
Diamond Credit Union
East Wisconsin Savings Bank
Educational Community Credit Union
Farmers Bank
First Alliance Credit Union
First Bank & Trust Company
First Federal Savings Bank of Twin Falls
First National Bank & Trust Company of Weatherford
First State Bank of Middlebury
Fox Valley Savings Bank
Greater Kinston Credit Union
Hanscom Federal Credit Union
Home City Federal Savings Bank
Hondo National Bank
Indiana Members Credit Union
INTRUST Bank
Kemba Financial Credit Union
Land of Lincoln Credit Union
Laramie Plains Federal Credit Union
LCNB National Bank
Liberty Savings Bank, FSB
Local Government Federal Credit Union
Mississippi Federal Credit Union
Montgomery Country Employees Federal Credit Union
MVB Bank Inc
Neighbors Credit Union
New Horizon Federal Credit Union
NorState Federal Credit Union
North State Bank
NW Preferred Federal Credit Union
OMNI Community Credit Union
Pinnacle Bank Sioux City
Pinnacle Bank Texas
Pinnacle Bank Wyoming
Quad City Bank and Trust
Republic Bank & Trust Company
San Antonio Federal Credit Union
SCE Federal Credit Union
Sharon Credit Union
South Shore Bank
State Employees Credit Union
Sun East Federal Credit Union
Sunrise Banks
Texas Capital Bank
The Bank of Missouri
TruWest Credit Union
Vantage West Credit Union
Wayne Bank
Wilson Bank & Trust
Apple is committed to an international expansion of Apple Pay, having launched the mobile payments service in Australia ('https://www.macrumors.com/2015/11/18/apple-pay-launches-australia-american-express/') and Canada ('https://www.macrumors.com/2015/11/17/apple-pay-launches-canada-american-express/') last month in partnership with American Express. Apple Pay is also coming to Hong Kong, Singapore and Spain ('https://www.macrumors.com/2015/10/27/apple-pay-american-express-partnership/') in 2016, and is rumored to launch in China ('https://www.macrumors.com/2015/11/24/apple-pay-china-launch-by-february-2016/') by February 2016.

On the merchant side, Cinnabon ('https://www.macrumors.com/2015/11/17/apple-pay-dominos-cinnabon-2016/'), Chili's ('https://www.macrumors.com/2015/10/08/apple-pay-starbucks-kfc-chilis-2016/'), Domino's ('https://www.macrumors.com/2015/11/17/apple-pay-dominos-cinnabon-2016/'), KFC ('https://www.macrumors.com/2015/10/08/apple-pay-starbucks-kfc-chilis-2016/') and Starbucks ('https://www.macrumors.com/2015/10/08/apple-pay-starbucks-kfc-chilis-2016/') will support Apple Pay in the U.S. starting in 2016.

Article Link: Apple Pay Now Supports BJ's Wholesale Club Credit Cards and 66 New U.S. Issuers ('https://www.macrumors.com/2015/12/15/apple-pay-bjs-rewards-card-66-new-issuers/')

I used Apple Pay for the first time yesterday at my local McDonald's. I am quite impressed at how fast and easy it is. Funny thing is that the cashier was blown away that I had an iPhone. She said I was the first person to use Apple Pay, and they've had it since it came out last year...

The very slow acceptance by merchants... Like the old chinese water torture. The good news is that it is continuing to roll out and it is getting traction. The bad news comes in two parts. First is those merchants that have NFC but refuse to accept Apple Pay, just because. The second bad news is that as merchants are switching readers, they are confused by the chip and dip and the NFC. It seem like it will take a while to get them to even understand how to use the new systems. It has been frustrating at several vendors even with the chip readers. My hope is that by the time the iphone 7 comes out, things will finally be shaken out and all will be good. Pretty much a two years, but it will be worth it once it is ubiquitous.

Here's something that might help. It's the best locator app I've found. You can set it to filter "contactless payment" and it stays on that setting. It doesn't show every single Apple Pay location, but it makes a good list/map of places.

https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/consumers/get-support/mastercard-nearby.html

You'd still have to carry a physical BJ's membership card (which is printed on your BJ's credit card.)

For this to actually eliminate a card in my wallet, ApplePay would have to support loyalty cards so they could transmit my membership card number as well as my credit card info.

I have been using Apply Pay at BJ's for several months already. In my experience apple pay works at locations with the NFC icon the payment terminal regardless of whether they are listed as an 'Apple Pay' merchant.

Could someone explain this?

That's how it works; Apple Pay is compatible with standard NFC protocols. This article is about registering BJ's branded credit cards within Apple Pay, not the store adding NFC support to its registers.

I think it would be nice if Apple Pay started working with more store cards, though. As in, the BJ's membership card. Getting rid of credit cards is nice, but getting rid of the various loyalty cards will really start slimming down wallets.