I have an Apple Card, but I’d much rather be using my Bank of America debit card for all of my Apple Wallet transactions. How can I add the card and make it the default on my iPhone?
While you don’t need to have an Apple Card set up to be able to use the Apple Wallet on your various Apple devices, it’s a pretty common pairing. I’m also a fan of the Apple Card setup too, including its best-in-class app and overall experience. Don’t have one? You can apply here: card.apple.com/apply/start [or just type in “card.apple.com” if you prefer being 100% sure you’re on the right page and props for being careful!]
Shortcuts: Open Apple Wallet | Add a Credit/Debit Card | Configure Card
With the average American having three credit cards and a debit card, it is nice to be able to set up the Apple Wallet with your preferred financial products. Worth noting up front is that not every credit or debit card supports the Apple Wallet, notably PayPal, which still rejects having its debit card added (even though news reports claim it’s aggressively moving into Apple Wallet integration. Go figure). I’ll point out where in the process you’d find out your card isn’t supported, but let’s get to it. A lot of steps, but it’s pretty easy.
OPEN UP APPLE WALLET
Grab your iPhone because that’s going to be the easiest device to use for this process. Find and launch “Wallet” and you’ll see all your credit cards, Apple Cash, and any other ID or loyalty club cards you’ve added. Here’s what I have in my wallet:
The orange card is my Apple Card and here’s a fun bit of trivia: The color shown is based on the category of the most recent transaction! Keep an eye on it and you’ll see what I mean. Below it you can see I have Cinemark, Chipotle, the Longmont Library and my Starbucks Card.
To proceed, tap on the “+” on the top right.
If you’ve had a card in your wallet and subsequently removed it, you’ll find it in the Previous Cards area. For our task, you’ll want to tap on “Debit or Credit Card” because it’s the exact same process for both. Note that you can also add transit cards and, for some states, a driver’s license or state ID.
Tip: As of this writing, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Hawaii and Ohio support digital driver’s licenses being included in your Apple Wallet.
Tap on “Debit or Credit Card” and here’s what you see…
NFC, if you’re curious, is Near Field Communications and it’s how your phone can share your payment info with a payment terminal by just being within an inch or two of the device. Ready to continue?
SCAN TO ADD YOUR DEBIT CARD
Tap on “Continue” to proceed. It opens up the camera and gives you the option of scanning your credit or debit card. Super easy!
I need to flip mine over, obviously, since the full number and other data aren’t on the front of the card. If it can’t read the number off your card, tap on “Enter Card Details Manually” to type it all in. Generally, though, it’s pretty darn good at extracting the required data. Once entered you’ll need to confirm some info and add your CCV secret 3-digit code.
To start, it’ll ask you to confirm the actual card number. Check this carefully!
Tap on “Next” to move to…
It will usually show your expiration date from the card, but if not, enter it here. Then enter your 3-digit security code and, again, tap on “Next” to proceed.
You’ll be presented with the Terms & Conditions from your bank which you should read through before tapping “Agree”. All good? Then you’ll get to this screen, confirming it’s all added without incident:
It’s the step between agreeing to the Terms & Conditions and it being added where adding the PayPal debit card fails, by the way, so if you get to “Card Added” you know that you have succeeded. If not, might be time to try a different card (or wait until PayPal adds support, as mentioned earlier).
CONFIGURING YOUR NEW APPLE PAY DEBIT CARD
Now that it’s in the system, you can set it up exactly as you’d like, starting with this prompt:
I actually prefer having the Apple Card as my default, but it sounds like you’re going to want to tap on “Use as Default Card“. Easily done. At this point Apple thinks it’s time for a quick reminder of how Apple Pay works. Okay, here’s what it explains:
Easy enough, right? You already know how to use Apple Pay, so can tap “Continue“. Now, how about that Apple Watch?
Don’t want to do that? Tap on “Done” on the top right. If you don’t have an Apple Watch, you won’t see this step at all.
You’re done and ready to go!
Tap on “Done” in the top left corner and next time you double tap the button on your phone, the new card will be shown as one of the options for Apple Pay:
Celebrating by going shopping is entirely up to you at this point, but mission accomplished.
Pro Tip: I’ve been writing tutorials for the Apple iPhone and Apple Watch since they were first released. Please check out my extensive iPhone help area and Apple Watch help area for oodles of useful content.