Apple Card in Thailand: card not accepted by merchants because CC number not visible on physical card

cgigante wrote:

• I frequently travel from the US to Thailand and on many occasions I have had a merchant flat-out refuse to accept my Apple Card for payment because the number is not visible on the physical card.

That may technically be a violation of their merchant account agreement with MasterCard or Visa networks. Just saying.

On another occasion, a merchant agreed to accept the card, but asked me to write down the full CC number. I reluctantly did so (I was in a tough spot, needing a hotel with minimal cash on me). They processed the payment and printed the receipt. When the receipt was printed, a 4-digit number is printed to it (which apparently is a Device Account Number code and not the last 4 digits of the credit card number). This confused the merchant because they were expecting the digits on the receipt to match the last 4 digits of the CC number I provided. This resulted in the merchant nulling my payment and refunding my purchase.

You cannot access the card number of the physical card, only the last 4 digits. It will be different than the virtual number in the wallet and than the number used for contactless payments.

As you can see, this is a massively annoying user experience in Thailand which renders the card all but useless there.

I post this for two reasons:

Feedback to Apple that less-developed markets may not be ready for a numberless credit card and that usage of the physical card will suffer as a result

Perhaps. Although there is no requirement that a card have a number. In fact, I have other cards with no numbers.

• Is there any advice that can help me convince merchants that the card is acceptable and that they don't need the full number to process a payment? (This has happened at large hotels and at 7-Eleven, not just smaller merchants.)

Ultimately, it's the whim of individuals. But, there really shouldn't be any issue anywhere. If the card passes through the network and provides authorization I cannot imagine anyone not taking it.