Home Depot says no to Apple Pay, because who needs security? [Updated]

By Joseph Keller
published

While Home Depot never formally announced Apple Pay compatibility, customers have been able to use it in several of the company's locations for some time now. However, it seems that Home Depot is now officially blocking Apple Pay at most of its retail outlets, pointing customers towards PayPal instead.

When asked about this lack of support, Home Depot sent this response, which was posted on Reddit:

We currently do not accept Apple Pay in our local stores or online. We do have the option of using PayPal, in store and online. We may offer this feature in the future, but we currently do not have a time frame for this and if we are going to accept Apple Pay.

It's unknown at this time if Home Depot has cut off other contactless payment services, but it seems likely. It appears, however, that some locations may still have Apple Pay enabled, as some people have reported that they are still able to make use of the service. Update: Home Depot says that their NFC terminals are down while they upgrade their system, according to Cult of Mac.

Given the massive data breach that the company experienced last year, which left 56 million customer credit cards exposed, you'd think that Home Depot would put customer security over a deal with PayPal. Apple Pay, which uses tokenization to keep your credit card safe, would offer greater security over traditional cards, and give users who don't want to use PayPal another way to pay.

Source: Matthew Crawford (Twitter), Reddit, Cult of Mac

Joseph Keller
Joseph Keller

Joseph Keller is the former Editor in Chief of iMore. An Apple user for almost 20 years, he spends his time learning the ins and outs of iOS and macOS, always finding ways of getting the most out of his iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac.

31 Comments
  • The things that pissed me off about Home Depot is that they were taking it for a while then stopped. I would rather you not take it at all. Since I live next to Lowes I will just go there.
  • Way to go Home Depot. I guess deals are more important than customers' security. Guess you don't mind another security breach. Just a matter of time. Sent from the iMore App
  • The source is an online customer service rep from India and somehow that is treated as an official company statement? By the way, nice click-bait headline. You guys are pros and shouldn't be feeding into this.
  • My local Home Depot has not accept my Apple Pay for a few weeks now even though the terminal has the NFC symbol on it. So the story has some credibility for sure.
  • This makes sense now. I was at home depot over the weekend, and wanted to show off to my wife how I can pay now with my watch. I tapped it to the card reader, and it actually made their system hang for a minute since it would not process. Anyways, I left a little sadder than when i came.
  • Last time I was in Home Depot I used Apple Pay. I asked the cashier if she'd ever seen anyone use paypal. She chuckled and said no. Small sample size, but telling. Who wants to log into paypal at a credit card terminal to make a payment?
  • I do. I use PayPal in Home Depot all the time. In fact it's the only way I pay when I go there. It's quick and seamless. No need to bring the wallet. Just type in some numbers and I'm on my way. Plus I get an instant email showing an itemized receipt. Sent from the iMore App
  • Bam, news I can use. Thanks for commenting, that helps to explain the system isn't as cumbersome as I would've thought .
  • Here’s my email to Home Depot customer service (credit card category): To whom it may concern, My family and I will no longer be shopping at Home Depot due to the recent acknowledgement that Apple Pay will no longer be accepted. This is an anti-consumer decision and it is for that reason we will not support Home Depot. I don’t care if other forms of electronic payment are offered, but to block our preferred method is anti-consumer and anti-choice. Home Depot is doing this out of self interest based upon some ill-advised dealings with anti-consumer companies Paypal and/or CurrentC. Apple does not force retailers to block other forms of payment, but Paypal (assumingly) and/or CurrentC (well known) DO. Apple Pay is just a much more secure method of using my credit card, which Home Depot still accepts, so to block my preferred method of using my credit card, be it swipe with left hand or right hand, or scan from iPhone, is unacceptable. You have all been hacked, Paypal, CurrentC, and Home Depot, and because of that, I will not shop at Home Depot if I cannot use a far more secure method of payment such as Apple Pay. Regards,
    J
  • so much wrong in your email. good luck with that!
  • What's wrong with it? Sent from the iMore App
  • You are some ignorant Troll, how old are you? 12?
  • Tell me what I am ignorant about?
  • Really? Sent from the iMore App
  • You are a sad, sad little man. Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • Card less NFC payments are doomed unless the industry supports a common standard. Competing formats are leading to lockout deals and an inferior consumer experience. Nobody is going to want to use something unless they can use it everywhere.
  • I have to agree with this. Of course, in Canada, we don't have Apple Pay, but we've been "tapping" our credit cards for years, but only in SOME stores. Unless something like Apple Pay becomes universal, it will be very difficult to leave your credit cards at home. I'm certainly not going to pay more for a product just because I can use Apple Pay or "tap" my card in a certain store. But it WAS annoying in Las Vegas two weeks ago when I had to show ID to pay with a credit card AND I had to sign slips. What is this, 1970?? haha
  • couldn't agree more. These companies shouldn't be allowed to make deals to cut out competition especially if there's no extra cost to them to use a competing service. I, for one, will no longer be shopping at Home Depot.
  • Actually, there *is* a standard, which is represented by the contactless payment logo (looks like a sideways WiFi logo) on recent point-of-sale terminals. AFAICT, every terminal that has been upgraded to support the upcoming Chip-And-{maybe not PIN} credit card deadline in the USA comes with this support baked in. Specific retailers have been involved in deals with payment providers (in this case PayPal, in other cases the Walmart-backed MCX consortium) to block good, known-working supporters of NFC payments (Apple Pay, Google Wallet) due to ... anti-competitive nonsense. While specific banks do take on some work to support Apple Pay in their backend operations, I don't believe the integration is particularly onerous (esp. at the rate they're onboarding new banks). I'll guess this is probably easier for most institutions than adding a new ATM network. Note that *many* retailers had day one support (often to their surprise!) for Apple Pay because they'd already done their Chip-and-Pin terminal upgrades and gotten NFC support in the bargain.
  • What about Samsung Pay! Lol Sent from the iMore App
  • Just ANOTHER item on the ever-increasing list of reasons NOT to shop at Home Depot. You'd think with their fervent homosexual advocacy they'd have an instant "in" with Tim Cook.
  • Wow, I'm certainly not going to stop doing business with someone because they won't take my "method" of payment. And I'm certainly not going to drive past a Home Depot to get to a Lowe's.. that's a waste of my time and money. They're completely interchangeable. Also, the NFC/Apple Pay payment technology is still in it's infancy, so I really don't expect to leave my wallet and cards at home. When I do see it somewhere, I make a mental note of it and move on.. Now, give it a couple of years from now and yeah.. I kind of expect to be able to just carry around my phone for both identification AND payment/account access.. Not doing business with someone because of their current choice of P.O.S. system is ridiculous. I'm sure we can all name more that a few companies that don't deserve our business based on things that ACTUALLY matter, like their ethical choices or workplace conditions, environmental responsibility, etc....
  • I have started giving more of my business to companies that accept Apple Pay. While I respect your decision to not go out of your way to frequent merchants that accept Apple Pay, I would argue that one of the quickest ways to change the opion of these merchants is to have them see a hit to the bottom line.
  • There's very few that use Apple Pay. So a fraction of the Apple pay base doing what you're doing has no affect.
  • Home Depot's operations and messaging are an incompetent mess on this front. I successfully used Apple Pay at a local Home Depot a little over a week ago. Interestingly, my successful payment actually surprised the checkout staffer a bit, who'd suggested that other customers had had problems recently. So perhaps word about the impending Apple Pay block had already come down to the floor-level staff? One way or another, Home Depot has long since already rolled out NFC support with their Chip-and-Pin credit card terminal support to stores. This is an explicit block of already-working Apple Pay support. It's important to note that there's zero extra work for a retailer with existing standards-based NFC support to support Apple Pay, precisely because Apple Pay is built on those payment standards. Many stores who had done new terminal rollouts for chip-and-pin (or mostly what we're getting: lousy chip-and-signature) ended up with Apple Pay support on "day one" with no extra work. Interesting question: is Home Depot blocking all NFC payments? E.g. does Google Wallet work at a store that's rolled out the Apple Pay block?
  • My wife works at Home Depot and supposedly their whole payment system is getting upgraded and NFC terminals are non functioning. Sent from the iMore App
  • I'm just amazed at the post that base their buying decisions on wether or not a certain merchant takes Apple Pay. I really think some people need to get a life!
  • I like the poor ass reporting done on iMore and then the ridiculous comments filled with self righteousness. Poor journalism and this spewing of hate at Home Depot like they owe you anything. Give it up wankers. Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • As it turns out………...http://www.imore.com/home-depot-plans-support-apple-pay-after-all I’m waiting for the, ‘You know what, I got it wrong’ comments.
  • Seems like Home Depot is leaving money on the table. Sent from the iMore App
  • Oh no! How will I be able to buy more tools I practically never use?! (I just can't resist poking fun at sky is falling articles. Or at the trolls who go ballistic at the people who get ballistic about the sky falling. Life is too good to sweat the little stuff. But I do like not having to fish my wallet out when I am at places that take Apple Pay! In fact maybe it is better if they don't; It is a little too easy to spend more with Apple Pay, by not having to really think about the amount I am paying!)