JCPenney Has Reinstated Apple Pay in All Retail Locations

JCPenney, a popular department store in the United States, this month said that it has reactivated contactless payments options including Apple Pay in all of its retail stores.

The information was shared by a JCPenney support employee on Twitter, who also said that ‌Apple Pay‌ would be accepted in stores starting June 19th. Given that it's now June 27, ‌Apple Pay‌ should be working in JCPenney retail locations once again.

jcpenney apple pay
JCPenney earlier this year eliminated support for ‌Apple Pay‌ and other contactless payment options due to an April 13 deadline from Visa for retiring legacy magnetic stripe contactless technology in favor of EMV technology.

A third-party credit card brand made the requirement for all merchants to actively support EMV contactless functionality effective April 13, retiring the legacy MSD contactless technology in place. Given the resources and lead time associated with meeting the new mandate, JCPenney chose to suspend all contactless payment options until a later date. Customers still have the ability to complete their transactions manually by inserting or swiping their physical credit cards at our point-of-sale terminals in stores, an option employed by the vast majority of JCPenney shoppers.

At the time ‌Apple Pay‌ was pulled from retail stores and the JCPenney app, JCPenney did not provide details on if and when it might be reinstated.


Prior to the end of ‌Apple Pay‌ support, JCPenney had offered the payment option since 2015, when it first rolled out to JCPenney stores.

Related Roundup: Apple Pay

Popular Stories

Home Hub Command Center with Dome Base Feature

Apple Working on All-New Operating System

Thursday September 25, 2025 1:11 pm PDT by
Apple is developing an all-new operating system codenamed "Charismatic," according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Apple smart home hub concept based on rumors This is likely Apple's long-rumored "homeOS" operating system. In a report last month, Gurman said both Apple's rumored smart home hub in 2026 and tabletop robot in 2027 will run the new operating system. He said the software platform ...
iOS 26 Battery Glass Feature

iPhone 16 Pro Max 80% Charge Limit: One Year Later, Was It Worth It?

Wednesday September 24, 2025 3:58 pm PDT by
With the iPhone 15 series, I did an experiment and kept my iPhone's Charge Limit set at 80 percent for an entire year. It provided an interesting look at the impact of charge limits on battery longevity, so I decided to repeat it for the iPhone 16 line. Since September 2024, my iPhone 16 Pro Max has been limited to an 80 percent charge, with no cheating. As of today, my battery's maximum...
iOS 26

Apple Continues to Prepare iOS 26.0.1 With Multiple Bug Fixes Expected

Sunday September 28, 2025 1:30 pm PDT by
Apple is preparing to release iOS 26.0.1, according to a private account on X with a proven track record of sharing information about future iOS versions. The account initially said iOS 26.0.1 would have a build number of 23A350, but they now expect the update to have a build number of 23A355. This suggests that the software update will include more bug fixes or changes than initially...
Apple MacBook Pro M4 hero

New MacBook Pro Nears Mass Production, But Four Bigger Upgrades Expected Next Year

Sunday September 28, 2025 2:08 pm PDT by
Apple's next MacBook Pro models will enter mass production soon, according to the latest information shared by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In his Power On newsletter today, Gurman said he continues to believe the new MacBook Pro models will be released at some point between late 2025 and the first quarter of 2026, meaning they should be available to order by March at the latest. Apple often...
AirPods Pro 3 Newsroom

Apple's 'Back to School' Offer Ends Soon, Now Applies to AirPods Pro 3

Wednesday September 24, 2025 7:20 am PDT by
Apple's annual "Back to School" promotion for students ends soon, so act fast if you want to score free AirPods with the purchase of an eligible new Mac or iPad. Until Tuesday, September 30, college students and qualifying educational staff in the U.S. can receive free AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation when they purchase an eligible new Mac or iPad from Apple. This is a $179 value. ...
iPhone 17 Pro Colors

Skipped the iPhone 17 Pro? Here's What is Rumored for iPhone 18 Pro

Tuesday September 23, 2025 8:55 am PDT by
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are still a year away, there are already a few rumors about the devices that offer an early look ahead. Below, we have recapped some of the early iPhone 18 Pro rumors so far. This story was published previously, and it has been updated to reflect the latest rumors. Many early rumors prove to be true, but nothing is confirmed yet, and Apple's...
iphone 17 ceramic shield

Regular iPhone 17's USB-C Charging Speeds Tested With Apple Chargers

Friday September 26, 2025 9:01 am PDT by
The website ChargerLAB has tested the standard iPhone 17 model's USB-C charging speeds with a variety of Apple's chargers, from 18W to 140W. The device reached a peak charging speed of around 27W to 28W with these Apple chargers:29W USB-C Power Adapter 30W USB-C Power Adapter 35W Dual USB-C Port Power Adapter 35W Dual USB-C Port Compact Power Adapter 40W Dynamic Power Adapter with 60W Max...
Apple More Personal Siri Ad

Apple Responds to U.S. Class Action Lawsuit Over Delayed Siri Features

Friday September 26, 2025 6:57 am PDT by
In March, Apple delayed the launch of its personalized Siri features, and soon after the company was hit with multiple class action lawsuits over the situation. The plaintiffs said they never would have purchased an iPhone 16, or would have paid less, had they known Apple's marketing about the Siri features was false. In the U.S., all of the complaints were consolidated into one class...
maxresdefault

Review: A Week With the iPhone 17 Pro

Friday September 26, 2025 12:51 pm PDT by
Apple's iPhone 17 models have been out for a week now, so we thought we'd do a longer-term review of the flagship iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max now that we've been able to spend more time with them. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. MacRumors videographer Dan Barbera has a Silver iPhone 17 Pro and a Cosmic Orange iPhone 17 Pro Max, and despite a lot of concern over...

Top Rated Comments

konqerror Avatar
82 months ago
I don't understand this. They had to support contactless payments and so the suspended the places that already accepted it? That still doesn't really explain why they pulled it from their App.
Both contactless and app-based Apple Pay operates in two modes. One is EMV, which is a slight extension on regular chip. The second legacy method is MSD, where it basically sends magnetic stripe data, except with a dynamic CVV1 value.

MSD is more secure than a static magstripe but less secure than EMV. Basically you can clone everything except the 3 digit number. MSD was designed so you could basically stuff it in existing magstripe systems.

Visa banned ('https://www.visa.com/chip/merchants/grow-your-business/payment-technologies/credit-card-chip/docs/emv-newsletter-april-may2018.pdf') the MSD mode of operation in April this year. One of the reasons they said was most foreign banks don't support MSD, so it would fail. The other reason they said was that many merchants screwed up MSD data, which I've observed where some cards work and some cards don't at the same place.

JC Penney apparently hadn't migrated in time, so they chose to disable the whole contactless system until they updated. Otherwise, they could only accept non-Visa cards through Apple Pay.

This is one of the problems with EMV, there's multiple certifications and testing you need every time you change something. There were major backlogs around the time of the liability shift in 2015.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
centauratlas Avatar
82 months ago
"Popular"???

Perhaps in the 1970s and 1980s.

It is good they are adding it back in, not that I can recall the last time I was inside a JCP store.

We were in Europe for a few weeks back in May and pretty much everywhere supported Apple Pay, with only two exceptions: someplace in Spain and one place said that you were limited to 30 GBP using Apple Pay which was crazy.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ryanmp Avatar
82 months ago
Always amazes me seeing articles like this, and the fact that this is the way it works in the US. Coming from Australia, its hard to find a retailer that doesn’t take Apple Pay/Contactless Payments
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Kaibelf Avatar
82 months ago
Great that Apple Pay is on. Unfortunately, there are no actual cashiers at any of the registers so who cares?
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dblackwood72 Avatar
82 months ago
Shortened announcement... JC Penny has reinstated Apple Pay in all 10 locations.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mikethemartian Avatar
82 months ago
every time i see a jcp post i'm amazed they are still around)
At least they’re doing better than Sears which has been ripped apart by Eddie Lampart with some help from his friend Steve Mnuchin.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)