If you’ve ever run out of the house with your iPhone, but left your wallet or purse behind, you know how annoying it is to turn around and go back to get it. If you use Apple Pay, you don’t have to.
The problem then is, how do you know who accepts Apple Pay? If you’re just out to get a quick bite to eat or some groceries, you don’t want to go from place to place asking them if they accept Apple Pay, so there has to be a better way, and luckily there is.
With a simple search in Apple Maps, you can see exactly who accepts Apple Pay, letting you instantly narrow down your options.
Using your iPhone, open the Maps app and look up the location you want to visit. For example, let’s say we’ve got a hankering for some doughnuts. One nearby option is Dunkin Donuts, which we pull up on our Maps application, then we tap on that location to view its details.
By viewing the location’s details, we can see stuff like its phone number, address, and more importantly, if it accepts Apple Pay. If it does, it will display the logo.
You could go through Maps this way, tapping every location that interests you and see if the logo is there, but perhaps an easier way is to simply search in Apple Maps with the term “Apple Pay”. This then will display various locations throughout your area that accept it.
Searching for Apple Pay locations this way might not be that thorough, however. You could also elect to use a free app called Pay Finders.
When you first open Pay Finders, you might be overwhelmed a bit by all the locations it shows that do accept Apple Pay.
If you tap on any icon on the map, it will tell you what it is and where, but this is akin to searching for a needle in the proverbial haystack.
To make searching easier, you can tap the second icon in the middle on the top menu bar, and then tap the funnel icon to narrow down your choices, where we can search for stuff, such as by category.
In order to use the advanced filtering features, you’ll have to sign up for a Pay Finders account, which takes a few seconds in the app.
Here we’ve found a grocery store that accept Apple Pay. In addition to showing us where it is, we can then map it, and we can rate our experience using Apple Pay there and make comments, among other things.
You can use Pay Finders to search for businesses directly (using the search feature) or filter them by name, distance, icon, newest, and as we mentioned, category.
Whether you use the Pay Finders app or elect to go the Maps route, at least you know you have options should you find yourself out and about without your wallet. Of course, if you get pulled over without your drivers license on you, your iPhone isn’t going to be able to save you from a ticket, but at least you can console yourself with some coffee and doughnuts afterward.