MCX Member Best Buy Begins Accepting Apple Pay in App, In-Store Support Coming

On an Apple Pay update shared during today's second quarter earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that Best Buy will begin accepting Apple Pay in its iOS app today, with full Apple Pay support coming to Best Buy stores later in 2015.

Best Buy's move to adopt Apple Pay is notable because Best Buy was previously a member of MCX, the Apple Pay competitor that's pushing the CurrentC payments service. CurrentC, which uses barcodes rather than NFC for payments, remains in testing and will launch later this year.

Best Buy follows MCX member Meijer in offering Apple Pay to customers, and while both companies signed exclusivity agreements, MCX CEO Dekkers Davidson has said that there are no penalties or fines for leaving the MCX program. MCX members are not able to accept both CurrentC and Apple Pay at the same time, so it remains unclear if Best Buy remains a part of MCX.

Apple also announced that the number of locations accepting Apple Pay has now tripled since the service first launched in October of 2014.

Update 4:10 p.m. Pacific Time: According to sources that spoke to Re/code, Best Buy won't begin accepting Apple Pay until later in 2015 because its MCX exclusivity agreements don't expire until the summer of 2015. A Best Buy spokesperson told Re/code that the company remains invested in MCX, but did not say the company will offer MCX when it launches. "We are actively monitoring their pilots. It's too early to declare whether we will take it at launch."

Tags: Best Buy, MCX, CurrentC

Top Rated Comments

(View all)

madsci954

52 months ago

And the first domino falls... :)

Rating: 18 Votes

bowler357

52 months ago

Hopefully the others will follow suit and the exclusivity stubbornness will kill MCX.

Rating: 11 Votes

wesk702

52 months ago

And the first domino falls... :)

Couldn't have sum'd it up better.

Rating: 9 Votes

Z400Racer37

52 months ago

Lmao I literally lol'd when that hit the call. Looks like the tech store is finally doing something right tech-wise heh heh heh

Rating: 6 Votes

Patriot24

52 months ago

No surprise at all. MCX/CurrentC was doomed from the beginning.

Viva la :apple: Pay

Rating: 6 Votes

hoon2999

52 months ago

I dont get the point of using CurrentC. Yes i get the benefits what merchants gonna have. Withdrawing money directly from customer's bank account so it charges lower fees. But what about the consumers? It takes longer to process opening app, scanning barcodes back and forth rather than just taking out card from the wallet and swipe. i dont see how people(consumers) would use CurrentC over traditional transaction. Plus most people use credit cards to purchase items. CurrentC doesnt work with CC from what i know

Rating: 6 Votes

jontech

52 months ago

Lol

Leaving the Walmart cartel eh?

Rating: 5 Votes

Lloydbm41

52 months ago

LOL at Best Buy. Those idiots turned off their NFC compatible readers years ago when Google Wallet first came out. Made me wonder why they ever bothered to upgrade their POS readers.

Now that Apple Pay is out and consumers are using it, Best Buy finally wakes up and realizes that maybe they should cater to their consumers more. Never understoof their rationale for taking away a payment method to begin with. sheer stupidity I guess. Regardless, another stake in the heart of CurrentC and I'm glad.

Next domino to fall will be Target. They already have everything ready for Apple pay, both online and in store. They just have to activate the POS readers.

Wal-Mart will be the last, but no surprise there.

Rating: 5 Votes

emcampbe

52 months ago

Is this the beginning of the end of MCX (part 2)?

What I really don't understand is why a store that primarily sells gadgets at hundreds of dollars a piece like Best Buy joined a coalition that practically aims to get rid of credit cards as a form of payment. I mean, CVS, where they sell stuff like $1 packs of gum and chips, that at least seems reasonable. But Best Buy, cmon?

Rating: 4 Votes

jdogg836

52 months ago

BB is in a slightly different situation than other MCX members. BB is basically an overpriced showroom for online retailers like Amazon, and has been reduced to sub-leasing floor space to manufacturers to reduce overhead costs. Apple may have put the screws to BB by threatening to pull displays/leased space from stores if they didn't accept ApplePay. BB accepting ApplePay is a sign of desperation in an attempt to stop the bleeding of customers to other BnM (some are also MCX members) and online retailers. BB will likely go the way of Circuit City and soon to be bankrupt Radio Shack.

Might be a bit out of touch with the current pricing between the two companies. Sure Amazon has things cheaper, but Best Buy matches them and still gives you reward points earned. I've found more than a few items recently that were cheaper at Best Buy than on Amazon. Amazon adjusts the prices down on the popular hits while less common things are not priced as competitively, so do your homework before you shop and come out on top.

Rating: 3 Votes

[ Read All Comments ]