If you have your card stored in your Apple Pay digital wallet on your smartphone, you will have the opportunity to pay with your card.
However, does McDonald’s take Apple Pay?
We will cover everything you need to know about using your digital wallet at McDonald’s.
Does McDonald’s Take Apple Pay?
Yes, McDonald’s takes Apple Pay and payments from all mobile wallets at all locations.
You can use Apply Pay at both the counter inside the store and the drive-thru.
McDonald’s has been taking digital payments since 2014, helping catapult digital payments into the mainstream.
You can use Apple Pay at most major fast-food chains, including McDonald’s.
Are There Any Fees For Using Apple Pay At McDonald’s?
There are no fees associated with using Apple Pay at McDonald’s.
Generally speaking, no mobile wallets accrue fees.
How To Use Apple Pay At McDonald’s
It’s rather easy to pay at McDonald’s using Apple Pay as long as you know what you’re doing.
1. Add Card To Apple Pay App
First and foremost, you will need to add your credit card to your mobile wallet.
To do this, you will open the application on your smartphone and follow the instructions.
You can add your card by entering the numbers manually or taking a picture.
After you enter the credit card information, you can use that card until it expires.
You can add multiple cards to your mobile wallet.
The card that you set as the primary card will be the first card used when you make NFC payments.
2. Open Apple Pay App At Store
Open the Apple Pay app when you arrive at the register.
To open the app, you will need to unlock your smartphone.
Most smartphones require owners to set up security measures, such as fingerprint identification, face recognition, or a passcode.
3. Bring Phone Close To Credit Card Terminal
After the cashier rings up all of your items, you will bring the phone close to the credit card terminal.
While some technologies work from as far away as four feet, you really want to keep your phone just a couple of inches away from the terminal.
4. Ensure Connection
You should see the credit card terminal accept your payment and move forward.
Usually, this is indicated by a green light and the payment processing.
5. Finalize Payment
If prompted by the credit card terminal, you may need to answer some questions or prove your identity with a signature or personal identification number, or PIN.
Keeping Your Mobile Wallet Secure
You need to keep your mobile wallet secure since most banks don’t refund mobile wallet payments since the user must go through multiple processes to complete the payment.
1. Limit People Who Have Access
The main reason people end up getting their mobile wallet hacked is that someone they trust used the mobile wallet behind their back.
In most of these cases, the hacked person freely provided the password to the person who hacked it.
2. Use Proper Phone Protection
You cannot use Apple Pay if you do not have protection on your phone.
You need to use this authorization method before you make a purchase using your mobile wallet to reduce the likelihood of someone finding your phone and making payments without your permission.
Benefits Of Using A Mobile Wallet
Why would anyone want to use a mobile wallet instead of simply using their credit card?
Here are some of the benefits of using Apple Pay or a mobile wallet.
1. Security
One of the great things about using your mobile wallet to complete a purchase is that the information transferred from the mobile wallet to the credit card terminal is not actually the credit card information but encrypted data with an individual code for each transaction.
Your credit card information remains safe, even if the merchant gets hacked.
2. Sanitation
We just went through a health pandemic.
Avoiding potential contact with any unhealthy elements is more important to people than ever these days.
In many cases, using your mobile wallet allows you to make completely contactless payments, so you won’t need to touch the credit card terminal used by all of the other customers (and containing their germs).
If you can’t make contactless payments, you can keep travel containers of hand sanitizer with you to ensure that you stay safe.
3. Convenience
Have you ever forgotten your credit card in a different coat or pair of pants?
Have you ever had to dig in your wallet for your credit card, thus holding up other people in line?
If you can’t immediately locate your card, you can still probably locate your phone.
You’ll be able to quickly and simply make your payment using your mobile wallet.
Ways To Order Food At McDonald’s
1. In-Store
You can always buy your food in-store. In-store ordering is the best option if you have time and want to relax and enjoy your meal while it’s fresh.
Other people may cause you to wait longer in line, and the people can cause other trouble, too.
2. Drive-Thru
The drive-thru is perfect for people in a hurry.
If you don’t mind a less-than-comfortable eating environment or waiting until you get to your destination, a drive-thru tends to be faster, and you don’t have to interact with other patrons.
The cashier working the drive-thru will bring the credit card terminal closer to you from the window so that you can connect your phone to the terminal.
3. Mobile App
If you are in so much of a hurry that the drive-thru won’t do, you can order your food in advance so that it’s ready and waiting for you when you get to the restaurant.
You can order from the McDonald’s app on your phone.
After you select the items you want, you will have the option to use Apple Pay when you check out.
Since you will be completing the ordering and payment with two different apps on the same phone, the process will be quite simple.
Troubleshooting Tips For Your Mobile Wallet
What happens if your mobile wallet doesn’t work for whatever reason?
There are a couple of things you can do to ensure that it’s not a problem with a quick fix.
1. Verify You Selected The Right Card
If you have multiple cards in your mobile wallet, you need to make sure that you selected the correct card.
Go to your Apple Pay app to ensure that you have the correct card selected as the primary card.
You may simply learn that you need to select the correct card and try again.
2. Restart Your Phone
While it sounds like an obvious solution, sometimes your phone or the app is out of whack, and you need to restart the phone to get everything back in order.
Restart your phone while you let the next person move forward with their purchase before trying again.
Restarting your phone will restart the app as well. While you can restart the app first, it’s easier to restart the entire phone instead of restarting the app then restarting the phone as well.
3. Reenter Card Details
If the terminal doesn’t seem to accept your payment at all, you may want to delete and reenter your payment information.
If you reenter the card details, you should double-check the information carefully before you resubmit it.
4. Call Your Financial Institution
Finally, if nothing else works, you will need to call your financial institution to learn what the problem is.
The financial institution won’t be able to help if the app can’t process the payment to begin with.
However, you may be able to learn more about why a purchase was declined.
In some cases, your bank may require additional authorization from you before they authorize mobile wallet payments, especially if this was one of the first times you used that card in your mobile wallet.
Broken Credit Card Terminal
If a credit card terminal appears broken, let an employee know right away.
The employee can ring up your order at a different terminal that isn’t broken.
McDonald’s has technical specialists they can call when a terminal goes down.
The employee will call the service company to service the credit card machines if necessary.
If the entire system is down, they may need to call for emergency repairs.
While still an emergency, the technicians might not resolve the problem before your lunch break is over.
Ways To Pay At McDonald’s (Besides Apple Pay)
If you want to use Apple Pay to pay for your order, but your Apple Pay isn’t working, you will need to learn what other payment methods you can use.
You can pay in the following alternate methods:
- Debit card
- Credit card
- Other mobile wallets
- Gift card
- Cash
What Payment Methods Will McDonald’s Not Accept?
McDonald’s will not accept a check from any customers.
Checks usually don’t go through for several days, so McDonald’s wouldn’t have a way to verify the funds when taking the check.
The restaurant will also not take Venmo, CashApp, or PayPal payments.
These payments usually tie to your bank account and remove money using an app, similar to a mobile wallet.
You can probably get similar results using a mobile wallet.
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