Credit cards, Bitcoin, Apple Pay, PayPal, there are multiple ways to purchase products from Home Depot and other retailers today.
But does Home Depot accept Apple Pay? As of 2021, Home Depot does not accept Apple Pay both online and in-store. In 2015 and earlier, some Home Depot locations did accept Apple Pay in-store, however, Home Depot opted for PayPal instead of Apple Pay.
Home Depot might have made big news in adopting Apple Pay fully. Home Depot might have caused a domino effect with other corporations. Instead, they ditched plans to adopt Apple Pay and instead opted for PayPal.
Home Depot And Apple Pay
Asking an associate, “Does Home Depot accept Apple Pay?” might lead to a negative answer, or worse, a headache, but less of a headache than the question of “Why not?”
Here’s what happened:
Before 2015, some US locations of Home Depot accepted Apple Pay. This service was briefly interrupted as Home Depot changed to a different POS (Point of Sale) system that year. Customers reported being able to use Apple Pay afterward, which further muddied the waters regarding the status of Apple Pay in Home Depot retail outlets.
Apply Pay was officially planned to roll out in Home Depot retail locations in the United States as of 2015, despite some locations accepting Apple Pay without a prior company-wide agreement.
However, these plans were dropped in favor of a deal with PayPal.
The Future of Apple Pay and Home Depot
There seem to be no plans for Home Depot adopting Apple Pay in-store or online. Home Depot, for now, has chosen PayPal as the preferred alternative payment processor for online and in-person transactions.
The future of Apple Pay is neither promising nor discouraging. Rather, it is a competition as Apple Pay is strictly reserved for all Apple products (iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, etc.) while Android phones dominate the global market.
Using PayPal at Home Depot
The availability of online shopping means that, yes, you can use PayPal to purchase items from Home Depot. Your products will then either be shipped to your address or be available for pick up from your desired location. Order pickers will have your products ready for pick up at a certain time and date.
For in-store purchases, PayPal is currently not accepted.
However, the PayPal Cash Card does allow you to make purchases from your PayPal account in locations where Mastercard is accepted. Fortunately, adding this card to your wallet means that, yes, in this form, PayPal is accepted at Home Depot.
Whether you want another plastic card in your wallet is another consideration! The convenience of having your PayPal account accessible via card might have the added benefit of avoiding fees when transferring funds to your personal bank accounts.
What is Apple Pay?
Apple Pay is basically a wallet in your phone. It can connect to your debit and credit cards and make payments using contactless terminals. Because of the locking mechanisms on handheld devices, such as passcodes, personal identification numbers, and facial identification, and the added security of an embedded secure element, Apple Pay has been lauded as highly secure.
(An embedded secure element is a tamper-proof chip in a mobile device that generates a unique number for every transaction made by your device. Your device, iCloud, and Apple’s servers do not store, and cannot access your debit or credit card numbers, hence the unique number generated for every transaction. Additionally, Apple does not share your banking information with retailers.)
Payments made with Apple Pay use the near-field communication mentioned earlier. Essentially, NFC is the tap function most credit and debit cards use today.
As for scammers and thieves, the only way they can get your money via Apple Pay is if you send it to them. Be scam-savvy! If it sounds too good to be true, if someone is asking you for money before any formal exchange of products, do not follow through!
What is PayPal?
The short story of PayPal starts like this: Elon Musk’s x.com buys Confinity, which created PayPal. Elon Musk (and others) then sold PayPal to eBay, and the rest is history.
PayPal replaces traditional methods of payment such as money orders and cheques with online money transfers. It is a payment processor for online vendors, auction sites, and many other commercial users. PayPal charges a fee for some deposits into personal accounts, but not for purchasing products online. Be sure to check their consumer and merchant fee pages for more detailed information.
PayPal can also be used for Apple services such as Apple’s app store, iTunes, and Apple Books. It can also be linked to your Apple ID.
Much like Apple Pay, the swiftest way to lose your money to scams is to hand it over. In regards to security, PayPal has multiple methods of ensuring that you are the only one to access your account.
PayPal stores enough of your personal data to help you if there is a problem with your account. It does not sell your data and does not share your personal banking information with the retailers that you purchase from.
In Conclusion
Apple Pay is a secure method of purchasing products both online and at supported retailers. It will thin your wallet to the point of never needing physical credit and debit cards again, not to mention the lightened burden of cash and coin. The threat due to, for example, having your wallet stolen or lost is also removed.
Because of the multiple layers of protection used for even accessing your Apple device, Apple Pay is safe. The future of making purchases looks safer and easier than with cash or a credit card.
When considering where to side with Android, Apple, PayPal, and any other form of payment for goods and services conduct your research appropriately. You may have a Mac Book and Android phone, the combination of which disables you from using Apple Pay at physical retailers. You may have a PayPal Cash Card, or you may purchase products from Home Depot online using PayPal and pick them up in-store.
Whichever method of payment works best for your lifestyle is the easiest one for you to use. But please, beware of scams!