Apple Pay Support to be Reduced in June 2026

Discover cardholders who use Apple Pay will soon experience a more limited range of features, as the company recently announced the removal of two key Apple Pay functionalities in June. While Discover is not ending its support for Apple Pay, it is discontinuing its integration with Connected Account and Pay with Rewards with Apple Pay. This means that after June 4, Discover members will no longer see their non-Apple Pay card transactions in Apple Wallet and will not be able to redeem their Discover rewards directly at the point of sale using Apple Pay.

Instead, cardholders will need to visit the Discover website or use the Discover Mobile app to view their rewards, balances, transactions, and payments. They can still redeem Discover rewards through other methods, just not directly through Apple Pay. Connected Account was introduced by Apple in response to the UK’s Open Banking initiative, with Discover and PayPal debit being the only US card issuers to participate. Pay with Rewards, introduced in 2015, had limited adoption, with only Discover in the US and Zilch in the UK utilizing the feature.

With these changes, Discover cardholders will have a similar experience to Visa or Mastercard users with Apple Pay. They can still make purchases online and in-person, and Apple Pay transactions will appear in Apple Wallet. However, physical card transactions will not show up in Apple Wallet, and rewards cannot be redeemed directly at checkout.

The reasons for these changes are not explicitly stated by Discover, but some speculate that it may be related to Capital One’s acquisition of Discover in 2025. There are theories that Discover and Capital One are reacting to Apple’s decision to partner with Chase for the Apple Card. Discover was one of Apple’s original partners for Apple Pay Cash in 2017, but Apple later transitioned to Visa Debit for payment processing.

While Capital One has supported Apple Pay in the US since its launch, it has notably not adopted Apple Pay in Canada, where it remains one of the few major banks without support. This decision contrasts with Canada’s high number of participating card issuers.