(device limit reached) Can't add ANY card to apple pay.

Device limit is applied to tokens issued by the banks. Apple cannot remove tokens from an iPhone. Only the issuing bank can remove tokens. Removing a card should remove any tokens. However, in practice, the bank may need to manually remove some (all) their tokens before cards can be added again.

Then your banks staff is very poorly trained or their superiors want them ignorant. Either way the end result is your working with a bank that offers poor customer service and doesn’t care to offer support.

Apple cannot fix this issue. Apple is not a bank and does not approve, verify, authenticate or decline adding cards to Apple Wallet app. I’m surprised your bank’s customer service team aren’t aware of this.

When you enter card information into the Wallet app on your iPhone it’s encrypted on your iPhone. The data passes through Apple servers to the Payment Network Operator (Visa, MasterCard, American Express etc.) and is decoded and checked for authentication and if it passes goes to the issuing bank. The bank then decrypts the data and reviews all the information and declines or approves adding your card.

If approved the bank refers the data to a Token Service Provider (TSP) and the token is sent to Apple servers, which then add it to the Secure Element on your iPhone. Everything is anonymous to Apple and they have no knowledge about your approval or denial. Banks are prohibited by law from sharing the data.

If your bank rejects your request to add a card, you receive a notification to contact the bank or try again later.

What is a token? Tokens are an encrypted piece of code issued by the bank (very rarely) or a TSP (Token Service Provider). The token takes your actual card data and changes the account number, expiration date, security code etc. and changes the data (referred to as dynamic) for every transaction to prevent a scammer or merchant from making multiple charges with the same information. This is how Apple Pay works and prevents your data from being exposed to merchants and scammers. If your bank support staff doesn’t know what tokens are they are poorly trained or ignorant. In either case find a better bank. How Apple Pay operates does not change from country to country. It works one way or it’s not available in that country.

Fraud alerts are placed on accounts by either your bank or the PNO. If a PNO suspects fraud they can block your request from going to the bank for approval. Fraud department at the bank may be alerted by the PNO, but first tier support team is kept in dark and only present bank’s corporate policy, deny, deny, deny.

crishhhhh wrote:

okay, it's not the bank, I cant add ANY CARD from ANY BANK.

When it comes to fraud reporting, banks and the PNO (Payment Network Operator like VISA or Mastercard) share that information. You are not given the reason why it was declined, other than the general fraud mentioned, as it is against the law for a bank to tell you the exact reason. One of your transactions from any bank likely caused a SAR (Suspicious Activity Report) to be filed. A bank is prevented from saying a SAR had been filed or even mentioning the existence of one. You can thank the Bank Secrecy Act passed by Congress and additional addendums in the Patriots Act for that.

Banks in any country have their own policies and procedures. Some banks in US are terrible and some banks in UK and UE are equally as bad. Apple Pay works one way in every country and the government and banks accept the way it works or it’s not available in the country.

My advice. Find a better bank. My personal opinion, based on responses in this community and on Reddit, is some banks care about their customers (and your money) and some don’t. In my personal experience Lloyds is among the worst. HSBC isn’t much better. Barclays is a better bank. Don’t take my word as gospel. My ranking is just based on a few dozen posts from different users in the community.

Questions?

What did the banks say when you asked them to remove their (the banks) tokens?

Jeff - your banks' support staff must be different in the US. Asking a UK bank about Apple Wallet tokens would be like asking a dog about algebra. I tried to tell my bank that their website had a problem with csv statement downloads. At first they thought I was applying for a job but once we got past that then the person on the phone signed me up for postal statements before I gave up.

Banks and PNO’s share information. It’s in their best interest to share. Fraud worldwide is annually in the 10’s of billions if not 100’s of billions. Fraud affects every bank.