Apple Pay declining Amex

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Level 1

10 points

Apple Pay declining Amex

My Amex keeps getting declined in Apple Pay, but when I use the physical card the transaction goes through with no problem. Amex tells me that they have not declined, but see a message stating that they "cannot associate account to device during transaction".

Amex tells me this is not a problem at their end, and apple is "looking into it", but it seems this is a recurring (although uncommon problem) based on a number of posts.

I have removed the card from my apple wallet and added it again, amex has done the same thing on their side. They also replaced my card, but nothing has worked and it's extremely frustrating as I use my Amex for everything for the points.

Does anyone have any ideas as how to remedy the issue?

Thanks

iPhone 13 Pro

Posted on Oct 9, 2021 2:25 PM

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Answer 1

askbarnabas

Level 10

104,230 points

Oct 9, 2021 7:29 PM in response to Hercule001

have you tried signing out of your Apple ID and back in?

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Answer 2

ermax18

Level 1

12 points

Oct 21, 2021 11:19 AM in response to Hercule001

I've had this problem for many years. I don't have this problem at all stores though. It works 100% of the time at some stores and fails 100% of the time at other stores. We have some vending machines at my office and both will take my physical AMEX card but only one of them will take my AMEX via Apple Pay. The machine that will not take my AMEX via Apple Pay does literally nothing when I put my phone or watch up to the reader. I switch to my debit card and it's the same thing, it doesn't even beep. I switch to a Citi Mastercard and the machine takes it via Apple Pay. I've been through 3 AMEX cards so far and have the same symptoms on all of them. I've removed it from Apple Pay and added it back several timers. I even reset my phone to defaults and started from scratch (without restoring from iCloud).... Same problem. I'm starting to think Apple charges AMEX to support Apple Pay and they are passing that to the merchants so the merchant rejects AMEX via Apple Pay. Maybe the other CC companies eat the Apple Tax so there is no extra cost to the merchants? All I know is it's supper frustrating to not be able to use Apple Pay everywhere. It's so nice when you have a watch to not need to dig in your pocket and these chip readers are so **** slow.

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Apple Pay declining Amex

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