Can I pay someone with Apple Pay with a credit card?

Can You Use a Credit Card Through Apple Pay to Send Money to Someone? The Real Answer.

Apple Pay has revolutionized how we make purchases, offering a convenient and secure way to pay at countless stores with just a tap of our iPhones or Apple Watches. But what about sending money directly to someone else? The ease of Apple Pay has led many to wonder: Can I use my credit card, through Apple Pay, to send money to a friend or family member?

The short answer is: It depends. While Apple Pay allows you to send money to other Apple Pay users, the mechanism behind it and the funding sources you can use are key to understanding the situation.

Let’s break down how sending money with Apple Pay actually works, and where your credit card fits in:

The Apple Cash Connection:

The primary way to send money directly to someone through Apple Pay involves Apple Cash. Apple Cash is essentially a digital debit card stored within your Wallet app on your iPhone or other Apple devices. It’s designed specifically for person-to-person payments.

The process, as you rightly mentioned, is as follows:

1. Open the Wallet app.
2. Access your Apple Cash card.
3. Tap “Send.”
4. Choose a recipient from your contacts or enter their information manually.
5. Specify the amount you want to send.

The Key Question: Funding Source

Now, here’s where the credit card question becomes crucial. When you send money through Apple Cash, you’re pulling funds from a source linked to your Apple Cash account. These funding sources can include:

• Apple Cash Balance: If you have money already sitting in your Apple Cash account, you can use that.
• Debit Card: This is the most common and straightforward way to fund an Apple Cash transfer.
• Bank Account: You can link your bank account to Apple Cash for direct transfers.

So, where’s the credit card?

While you can add a credit card to your Apple Wallet and use it for purchases in stores and online via Apple Pay, you typically cannot directly use a credit card to fund Apple Cash transfers.

Why? The Fine Print & Fees

The reason for this limitation comes down to fees and potential loopholes. Credit card companies generally charge higher fees for cash advances or balance transfers. Allowing direct credit card funding for Apple Cash transfers could be exploited as a cheap way to get a cash advance, which isn’t beneficial for credit card issuers.

Possible Workarounds (and Their Drawbacks)

There are a couple of indirect ways you might be able to use your credit card to effectively send money via Apple Pay, but they come with caveats:

• Some credit cards offer rewards for cash advances: While not recommended due to high interest rates and fees, technically you could take a cash advance from your credit card, deposit the cash into your bank account, and then use that bank account to fund your Apple Cash transfer. This is a very expensive and inefficient process.
• Using a payment app that allows credit card funding (but with fees): While you can’t directly use a credit card through Apple Pay to send money, there are other payment apps like PayPal or Venmo that do allow you to fund payments with a credit card. However, these apps often charge a fee for using a credit card as the funding source. You could then send the money to the recipient, who could then transfer it to their Apple Cash account.

In Conclusion

While Apple Pay offers a fantastic and convenient way to send money to others via Apple Cash, directly funding those transfers with a credit card is generally not possible. You’ll primarily be using your Apple Cash balance, linked debit card, or bank account to send funds. Before resorting to workarounds involving cash advances or other payment apps, consider the associated fees and interest rates, and explore whether a simple debit card transfer might be the most cost-effective solution.