Why wouldn't the same work with a phone via NFC as with a physical card via NFC? At least my phone (Android) presents the virtual rewards card (one app) first, then the virtual credit card (another app).

I don't think Apple Pay can present multiple NFC cards automatically in succession or at the same time. And the rewards card cannot even be added to the Wallet anyways, since the bank's app only adds the Visa Debit/Credit cards, and the store rewards app doesn't add anything at all.

I'm not sure if there's even an API to add store rewards cards as NFC cards, since all of my rewards cards in the Wallet are barcodes.

See e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Wallet#Supported_loyalty...

> These programs are conveyed through NFC via Apple Wallet's VAS protocol. Programs that support One Tap are conveyed at the same time as a payment card stored in Apple Wallet.

Never knew about VAS. I guess I just need to lobby the store to implement the protocol then. Probably fat chance they'd actually implement it though.

You'd think it would be a no-brainer to improve the checkout process like this, but perhaps Apple's terms are unfavorable to the stores.

Anecdotally, VAS is great when it works. Seems to work reliably enough for me at Walgreens and Jimmy Johns as two examples. (Though I often forget it works at Walgreens because they heavily encourage the two-step procedure because the cashier likes to make sure you have the loyalty card for some reason before finalizing the total, even when no savings would have been involved.)

Could you explain a bit about this? I’ve never seen a card acting double purpose like this and I’d love to read about it. Does your credit card have some sort of rewards program for the store, or is it a store card? Or how does this work exactly?

It's not a store card, it's a fairly regular Visa Credit/Debit card from my bank (Osuuspankki) that has the loyalty card for K Group's stores integrated into it. When you order a new payment card, you can add your loyalty card number in the application and they'll integrate it in your card.

https://www.op.fi/private-customers/daily-banking/cards/card...

Other banks in Finland also offer the same loyalty card integration with their payment cards.

No idea how it works technically. I assume that it broadcasts the loyalty card and the debit card at the same time when you use NFC, since you can get both with one (long) tap against the payment terminal. It also reads the loyalty card if you use chip + PIN to pay. The loyalty card is completely separate from the actual payment card - if I use Apple Pay to pay with the same underlying Visa card, it will not give me any loyalty rewards.

Something similar applies to Costco gas pumps: if you have a Costco Visa you can tap it once and it will both validate your membership (which is required to use the pump) and bill the charge to the card. Apple Pay doesn’t work because the membership isn’t associated with it.