Apple Card users reportedly having issues paying/using transit in New York, but there's a workaround

Apple Card is a new type of credit card created by Apple with the goal of assisting users in living a healthy financial life, was first made available back in August 2019 in the United States.

Customers can apply for an Apple Card in minutes using the Wallet app on their iPhone and begin using it with Apple Pay in stores, apps, websites, and other services straight away.

The card isn’t really contactless so one has to swipe it across any OMNY system but is still an extremely convenient form of payment regardless. Fans of contactless payments can always use Apple Pay on their iPhone for a one-tap pay.

Anyway, things haven’t exactly been smooth sailing for those that are dependent on the Apple Card for payments for New York transit due to issues.

There seems to be some issues with Apple Card users having issues paying/using transit in New York. For those unfamiliar, here’s the program in question: https://transit.applepay.apple/new-york/
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I took the NYC subway a few times last week and used my Apple Card transit pass to pay for each entry. I haven’t used the subway in a few days, yet I see that the MTA is trying to put additional fraudulent and criminal charges on my card, as recently as earlier today. The MTA attempted to charge me $2.75 twice now on my card. Both of those were declined and it says “Declined – Physical Card Not Activated.”
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Users say that Apple Card lets them into the subway with a pre-authorization. But when the charge is supposed to settle it gets declined with a physical card not activated message.

This does result in a free ride but the MTA then blocks one from using that same card until the charge goes through successfully.

Others also say that they get a “Declined – Physical Card Not Activated.” error message upon trying to pay.

The issue seems to be a bug in the OMNY system that prevents the Apple Card + Apple Pay system to work with rotating card numbers.

Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a sign of any official acknowledgment from OMNY or Apple yet so a fix for the problem is not in sight.

However, there is actually a workaround that has been suggested by a user for the Apple Card New York transit issues and you’re free to give it a try.

A way to fix it I’ve found is to try and use your Apple Card and when OMNI says “payment not accepted” Switch to a different card in Apple Pay and use that instead. Your new card will get charged and the previous charge that was being declined on the Apple Card will go through and you’ll be able to use your Apple Card again.
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While this does work, the issue arises again in just a week. This means that you’ll have to repeat the process when that happens.

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