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How to use Apple Pay with your Mac

You may already use Apple Pay with your iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. However, it’s also a great fit for your Mac.

Buy with Apple Pay
Buy with Apple Pay

But let’s back up. In case you’re not familiar with Apple Pay, it’s the tech giant’s mobile payment and digital wallet service/app that lets you make payments in person, in apps, or on the web. You can use it to buy stuff, subscribe to Apple Music, upgrade your iCloud store—even purchase all your favorite gear at MacSales.com! 

Apple Pay digitizes and can replace a credit or debit card chip and PIN transaction at a contactless-capable point-of-sale terminal. It doesn’t require Apple Pay-specific contactless payment terminals; it works with any merchant that accepts contactless payments.

You can use Apple Pay in Safari on your Mac to shop easily and securely. However, first you need to set up your credit or debit card on the desktop or laptop you’ll use to complete your purchase:

Apple Pay Checkout
Apple Pay Checkout

In the Safari app on your Mac, at checkout, click Apple Pay. You can change the credit card, shipping address, or contact information before completing your purchase.

If your Mac supports Touch ID, you can authenticate a purchase with it. However, only one user account on your Mac can use Touch ID on the Mac to complete purchases with Apple Pay. Other user accounts must use iPhone or Apple Watch.

You can use autofill credit cards, contacts, and passwords in Safari on your Mac. 

To add or remove a stored credit card, in the Safari app, choose Safari > Preferences, then click AutoFill. Select “Credit cards,” then click Edit.

Apple Pay Autofill
Use Autofill Option to Update Apple Pay Credit Cards

To fill in your credit card info, launch Safari, click in a credit card field when making a purchase. Choose from a list of your stored credit cards.
If your Mac has Touch ID, you can use it to fill in the stored information for the selected credit card. Note that, for security, Safari doesn’t store the credit card security code. You’ll have to enter it manually each time you use the card on a website. Yes, that’s a bit inconvenient, but it’s worth it for the protection.

To fill in info from the Contacts app, open Safari and start typing any name from your contacts to autofill the details. If a contact has more than one address, email, phone, or other info, you can choose from the home, work, or custom address you’ve already entered in their contact card. If you don’t want Safari to autofill information, just keep on typing.

To fill in your user name and password, open Safari and do one of the following:

  • If you’ve already stored your user name and password for a  website, use AutoFill to enter the information and sign in. Click on the user name field, then choose your user name.
  • If your Mac has Touch ID, you can use it to fill in your stored user name and password and sign in. If the webpage has an option to remember your info and you wish to use that option, select it before you use Touch ID.
  • If there’s no stored user name and password for the website, save the info and use AutoFill next time. Enter the user name and password, or automatically create a strong password, then click Use Strong Password when asked.

I’m a big proponent of Apple Pay. It’s easy to use and lets you quickly switch between the cards you’ve linked to the Wallet app on your iOS devices. If you’re not using it, give it a try.

And don’t forget that MacSales.com accepts Apple Pay to help streamline your shopping experience, so that might be a good place to start!

Dennis Sellers
the authorDennis Sellers
Contributing Author
Dennis has over 40 years of journalism experience and has written hundreds of articles. For the past 20-plus years, he's been an online journalist, covering mainly Apple Inc. He's written for MacCentral, MacWorld, MacMinute, Macsimum News, Apple Daily Report, and is now contributing editor at Apple World Today.
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1 Comment

  • I have tried to use Apple Pay at a wide range of online stores..with generally bad results. The result is always the same…the purchase instantly completes without allowing me to change anything..including card, contact information or…and this was my biggest headache…shipping information. The latter means NO Apple Pay gift purchases to recipient addresses, everything automatically goes to my own address! I had not signed into a customer account on any of the sites. I asked a few businesses why they had the Apple Pay button early in the checkout process instead of in the traditional payment method location – after entering the shipping and billing addresses – and they said Apple requires it to be up front. The staffs agreed it was a problem for customers. I sent feedback to Apple, but now generally avoid using Apple Pay online except for simple purchases for myself.