Does CVS Take Apple Pay?

CVS is a leading pharmacy chain, making it a popular place to pick up prescription medications and other healthcare-related items. Customers can now pay with a simple tap of their iPhone or Apple Watch.

Apple Pay is an easy and fast way to use your phone for purchases at your favorite stores. Many companies, including CVS, are now accepting Apple Pay. The company introduced Apple Pay at CVS in late 2018. Now, you’ll never have to find a card or pull out your wallet for checkout at your favorite stores.

CVS is Now Accepting Apple Pay

What are the Apple Pay Options at CVS?

Installing Apple Pay on your Apple device is the first step to using Apple Pay at any store. The next step is to add a valid debit or credit card to Apple Pay.

Pay at the pharmacy counter by bringing your phone close to the NFC reader and choosing Apple Pay as your payment method. The next step is to verify authorization with your TouchID or FaceID, confirming and completing the transaction.

Do You Get Cashback at CVS if You Pay with Apple Pay?

You can receive up to 35$ cashback per purchase when you pay with a debit card at CVS. However, the Discover CashBack Debit Card is an exception for those using Apple Pay or credit cards. Apple Pay transactions using the Discover Cashback Debit card are eligible for the same 1% cashback reward that Discover offers typically for all other methods.

Does CVS Accept Apple Pay for Online Purchases?

Regrettably, no. CVS, however, only accepts Mastercards, Visa Cards, American Express, and Discover for nonprescription purchases made online. PayPal is also an option at CVS online.

Is Apple Pay compatible with CVS’s mobile app?

You cannot make purchases with Apple Pay via the CVS app. This is because Apple Pay is not available for checkout in the CVS app. With the CVS app, you can use gift cards, PayPal, Visa Checkout, and other major credit cards. 

CVS users can still use Apple Pay using a simple trick. Using your Apple Pay account, purchase an eGift card and add it to the CVS app. In that case, you can buy it at CVS pharmacy.

How Else Can You Pay at CVS Pharmacy?

American Express MasterCard, Visa, and Discover are all accepted at CVS stores and online. Paying in-store is now possible with PayPal or Venmo at CVS stores. PayPal or Venmo users swipe a QR code at the register to complete the payment process. Credit cards, debit cards, bank accounts, or existing balances may be used to fund the purchase. CVS is the first retailer to adopt the QR code payment system.

More than 8,200 CVS Pharmacy locations now accept PayPal and Venmo wallets. When checking out with PayPal or Venmo QR codes, those enrolled in ExtraCare Rewards programs will still be able to use their ExtraCare Rewards account to redeem and apply savings.

Why did CVS Not Accept Apple Pay Before 2018?

Four years after Apple Pay first became available, CVS accepted it as a payment method. In the past, CVS deliberately blocked the use of Apple Pay at stores by disabling NFC readers. Following Tim Cook’s announcement earlier that year, CVS became the latest retailer to accept Apple Pay as a payment method after many years of refraining.

CVS supported Current C, a major Apple Pay competitor created by Target and Walmart. While it relied on QR codes, this competing platform was more complex than Apple’s NFC “tap to pay” technology. JP Morgan acquired Current C in 2017, which ended the platform.

CVS also encourages its customers to use CVS Pay, an in-app payment option, instead of Apple Pay. Similarly to Current C, CVS Pay also utilizes QR codes for payment.

Why use Apple, pay at CVS?

With Apple Pay, customers can pay for goods at stores using their iPhones as an electronic wallet. Users don’t need to enter any credit card information or sign anything to purchase with Apple Pay – they tap the phone against a contactless reader. Using Apple Pay at CVS is convenient and takes less time to line up, so you can spend more time shopping!

Can You Add a CVS Card to the Apple Wallet?

You can add CVS extra care card to your Apple wallet. You can check the compatibility of a CVS card or any other store card in the Wallet app by scrolling to the bottom and selecting “edit passes” then “scan code.”

FAQs

• Why does contactless pay matter to CVS customers?

This partnership allows customers to purchase pharmacy items without touching a keypad or signing a receipt – an increasingly important option for consumers in the pandemic’s face. The company has focused resources on finding new ways to make customers’ lives easier and more convenient.

Consumer preferences are changing, so more digital options, including touch-free payment at the checkout, are necessary. According to the CVS Health news blog, CVS has seen its touch-free transactions increase by 43% in 2020.

What is CVS pay?

Besides providing payment solutions, CVS Pay streamlines checkout processes at the pharmacy, making it easy for customers to combine multiple steps into a single experience. With CVS Pay, customers can pick up prescriptions in a simple, private, and end-to-end manner.

Refills, management of multiple prescriptions, and alerts of ready drugs are all available through the app, which customers can pick up and pay for using a single barcode. By linking their ExtraCare cards to CVS Pay, customers can pay at checkout with just a single scan, earn new rewards and pay with rewards they have already earned.

If the customer has added a credit card or debit card to the CVS Pharmacy app, they can check out by showing the store associate the barcode in their app. Drive-thrus will share their pickup numbers. Once the associate scans the barcode, the associate rings up the items and lets the customer select a payment method from the app. Name/birthdate, PIN, signature, and other validations for prescriptions and payments occur directly in the app, so transactions are seamless. Confirmation of payment will appear within the app once you have made payment.

Conclusion

CVS’ standalone retail locations use Apple Pay at the NFC reader near the checkout in all of its 8,200 stores. However, Apple Pay is not accepted as a payment method by CVS’s online pharmacy or CVS’s app.