Amex

Apple Pay expands in Hong Kong with support from Amex, Visa and MasterCard

Apple Pay expansion in international markets has accelerated lately, with the mobile payment system launching in France yesterday and now, just 24 hours later, in Hong Kong. According to Apple Pay's Hong Kong website, the service is supported at launch by all three major credit card companies: Visa, American Express and MasterCard, with cards issued by Hang Seng Bank, Bank of China (Hong Kong), DBS Bank (Hong Kong), HSBC, Standard Chartered and AmEx.

Apple Pay rolls out fully in Singapore with five major banks on board

After debuting in Singapore last month with initial support from American Express, Apple Pay today launched fully in the country with five major banks on board. According to Apple's support document highlighting participating banks and store cards, the following financial institutions in the country support adding credit cards to Apple Pay: DBS, OCBS, POSB, Standard Chartered Bank, United Overseas Bank and American Express.

Apple Pay launches in Singapore with support from Amex, Visa and MasterCard due soon

Through launch partnership with American Express, customers in Singapore can now take advantage of Apple's mobile payment system to pay for goods and services in stores with a touch of their finger. Adding Singapore to the list of countries that support Apple Pay was advertised earlier today on the local Apple Pay website in Singapore.

Local retailers like FairPrice, Starbucks, TopShop, TopMan, StarHub, Shaw Theaters and several others will now take Apple Pay as a form of payment. In the coming months, outlets like 7 Eleven, The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Food Republic and Toast Box will roll out support for Apple Pay in the 5.4 million people country.

American Express rolls out corporate credit card support with Apple Pay

American Express, one of early Apple Pay backers, today announced it is adding Apple Pay compatibility for corporate credit cards issued in the United States. Available today to eligible U.S. corporate cards, the system allows owners of the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch to pay for services online and for goods at contactless merchants in stores with Apple Pay and their corporate credit card on file.

Watch AmEx’s Apple Pay ad with Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Henson, Tina Fey and others

Last evening, American Express began airing its inaugural television commercial for Apple Pay.

Conceived as the evolution of AmEx, the commercial, called “Retrospective,” uses some of AmEx's best-known ads featuring celebrities such as Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Henson, Tina Fey, Jackie Chan and Martin Scorsese (who also starred in Apple's Sir ad).

“American Express’ timeless safety and security are now available on Apple Pay,” the ad proclaims. “The next evolution of membership is here.”

Taking the American Express Passbook pass for a spin

Want a quick and easy way to access recent purchases and account balances made with your American Express card? If you're running iOS 6, then you can now do so with Passbook.

First of all, just to clear up any misconceptions, you can't actually purchase goods via Amex using Passbook — that functionality doesn't yet exist. What you can do, though, is sync your Amex card with Passbook to access the convenient features mentioned above — balances, recent transactions, and the like.

As someone who uses Amex exclusively for almost every purchase, large and small, I've been anxious to try out Amex's Passbook offering ever since it was first announced that they were on board. Here's what I found...