Walmart Now Takes Tap — Apple Card Users Can Now Get 2% Back
Walmart finally caved. After more than a decade of refusing tap-to-pay, Walmart and Sam’s Club began accepting Apple Pay and Google Pay on August 24, 2026 — at select locations now, at every U.S. store by the end of the year, and at fuel stations by mid-2027.
That is genuinely big retail news. But if you carry the Apple Card, it is also a raise.
Apple Card users just went from 1% to 2% at Walmart
The Apple Card pays 2% Daily Cash on purchases made through Apple Pay — but only 1% when you swipe or insert the physical card. Until this week, Walmart was the biggest store in America where Apple Pay did not work, which meant Apple Card holders were stuck at 1% on every Walmart run.
That just ended. Same card, same store, same groceries — tap with your phone instead of swiping, and your cash back doubles. No signup, no new card, no fine print. It is the rare rewards upgrade that requires exactly one new habit.
The rollout, in plain terms
- August 24, 2026: tap-to-pay live at select Walmart and Sam’s Club locations
- End of 2026: every U.S. store
- Mid-2027: fuel stations
- Cash, physical cards, Walmart Pay, and Sam’s Club Scan-and-Go all still work
Why Walmart held out so long — and why it matters
Walmart spent years pushing its own alternatives — Walmart Pay, Scan-and-Go, and before that the retailer-backed CurrentC project, built specifically to route around card networks and their fees. CurrentC died in 2016; the holdout lasted a decade longer. Walmart giving in tells you where payments are headed: per Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City research cited by Yahoo Finance, mobile payment usage doubled between 2021 and 2025, and about 70% of mobile register payments now happen by tap.
The takeaway for your wallet is bigger than one store: rewards increasingly depend on how you pay, not just what you buy. The Apple Card is the clearest example, but wallet-based bonuses are becoming a real category of value — and one more thing the right card setup should account for.
Know what your cards pay before you are at the register
Every card we review lists its real earn rates — including wallet quirks like this one — on its card page, with news updates when terms change. And the calculator ranks today’s top cards by what they would actually pay on your spending, net of annual fees. Sixty seconds, no login, nothing stored.
Written by Patrick Richardson, founder of MyCreditPerks.