You’ve probably heard of Apple Pay by now. It’s the mobile wallet app from Apple that enables you to pay for goods and services at participating retailers using your iPhone. It’s really easy to use, too. All you have to do is double-press the side button on your iPhone, authenticate with TouchID and hold your phone up to the contactless reader. That’s it! But what happens if, when you try to pay with Apple Pay, it says PENDING? This article will answer that question as well as everything else you need to know about unblocking Apple Pay if it says pending.
Why Does Apple Pay Say Pending?
If you see the below message when you’re trying to make a purchase with Apple Pay, it means that your card was declined. This is often because your card has a low limit or is not accepted by the merchant. If this happens, try contacting your bank to check if there’s something wrong with their authorization process for your card.
What Happens If Apple Pay Says Pending?
- If the Apple Pay message says “Pending” it means that your card was declined by the merchant. This means that the merchant did not authorize your transaction, although they may still accept Apple Pay.
- If you see a “Pending” message on your iPhone, tap on the message to go to the Apple Pay Wallet app. In there, you’ll see a list of transactions where your payment was declined by the merchant or you had an error with your card’s security code. If there’s an error code here, tap on it and contact your bank to check if there’s something wrong with their authorization process for your card.
- If you see a “Pending” message on your watch, tap on it to go to the Apple Watch app. There you can view all of your payments that have been pending for more than one minute (1 minute is shown as 1 hour). You can also remove those transactions from this list by tapping on them and then choosing “Remove from Apple Pay.”
- If you see a “Pending” message on your phone, tap on it to go to the Apple Pay Wallet app. In there, you’ll see a list of transactions where your payment was declined by the merchant or you had an error with your card’s security code. If there’s an error code here, tap on it and contact your bank to check if there’s something wrong with their authorization process for your card.
- If you see a “Pending” message on your watch, tap on it to go to the Apple Watch app. There you can view all of your payments that have been pending for more than one minute (1 minute is shown as 1 hour). You can also remove those transactions from this list by tapping on them and then choosing “Remove from Apple Pay.”
- If you see a “Pending” message at any time, call 1-800-MY-APPLE (1-800-692-7753) or send an email to support@apple.com from the phone that shows the “Pending” message and we’ll help get things moving again!
How To Unblock Apple Pay?
- If you see a “Pending” message on your watch, tap on it to go to the Apple Watch app. There you can view all of your payments that have been pending for more than one minute (1 minute is shown as 1 hour). You can also remove those transactions from this list by tapping on them and then choosing “Remove from Apple Pay.”
- If you see a “Pending” message at any time, call 1-800-MY-APPLE (1-800-692-7753) or send an email to support@apple.com from the phone that shows the “Pending” message and we’ll help get things moving again!
- If you see a “Pending” message on your iPhone, go to Settings > Wallet and tap the “Pending” button to view all pending transactions. You can also remove those transactions from this list by tapping on them and then choosing “Remove from Apple Pay.”
- If you see a “Pending” message on your Mac, go to the Apple Watch app and select the device that shows the “Pending” message. Then choose “Remove from Apple Pay” in the upper right corner of the screen.
- If you see a “Pending” message on your iPad, go to Settings > Wallet and tap the “Pending” button under your name at the top of the screen to view all pending transactions. You can also remove those transactions from this list by tapping on them and then choosing “Remove from Apple Pay”.
- If you see a “Pending” message on your iPhone or iPad while using Safari, open Safari Preferences (in Settings > Safari) and choose “Block Web sites ”. You can also remove these transactions from this list by tapping on them and then choosing “Remove from Apple Pay”.
- If you see a “Pending” message in Messages, open the Messages settings (in Settings > Messages) and choose “Enable Passcode Lock”. You can also remove these transactions from this list by tapping on them and then choosing “Remove from Apple Pay”.
- If you see a “Pending” message in Safari, go to Settings > Safari > Block Cookies and Block Sites under Privacy on the left side of the screen and then choose “Block Sites” or “Block Cookies” to remove those transactions from this list.
- If you see a “Pending” message on your iPhone or iPad while using FaceTime, turn off FaceTime in Settings > FaceTime under the Cellular section of the screen. You can also remove these transactions from this list by tapping on them and then choosing “Remove from Apple Pay”.
- If you see a “Pending” message while using iMessage, go to Settings > Messages, tap on your name at the top of the screen, tap General, scroll down to Turn Off iMessage Previews, and Turn Off Multitasking Support under General, select it, and then turn off both options at once (they are both turned off by default). You can also remove these transactions from this list by tapping on them and then choosing “Remove from Apple Pay”.
Conclusion
If you’ve ever tried to use Apple Pay, then you’ll know that it’s a pretty straightforward process. You just double-press the side button on your iPhone, authenticate with TouchID and hold your phone up to the contactless reader. However, the first time that you try it, there’s a chance that it will say PENDING. If this happens, there are a couple of things that you can do to fix it, including going to your bank to find out why it has been blocked and waiting until it has been unblocked or contacting the Financial Ombudsman if it has been blocked without good reason.
