UK’s TSB and Tesco Bank now support Apple Pay

TSB Apple Pay teaser 001

In addition to adding Canada as the third country where Apple Pay is available (limited to American Express cardholders at launch), availability of Apple’s mobile payments service in the United Kingdom, where Apple Pay launched this summer, increased today with financial institutions TSB and Tesco Bank now supporting the service. This leaves Barclays as the last UK major bank without support for Apple Pay.

TSB or Tesco Bank customers can enable Apple Pay by launching Apple’s Wallet app on their iPhone to scan their card. Alternatively, customers can authenticate their credit card on iTunes for use with Apple Pay. To complete the process, you’ll need to type in a verification code sent by TSB or Tesco Bank.

TSB supports Apple Pay with any MasterCard Tesco Bank card and includes 5 percent cash back promotion with its Classic Plus accounts. As for Tesco Bank, the supermarket itself hasn’t fully committed to contactless terminals so customers  are no doubt going to face limited support for Apple Pay at Tesco’s UK stores.

Tesco Bank Apple Pay teaser 001

As for TSB, they support Apple Pay with debit cards and MasterCard/Amex credit cards. Keep in mind that the contactless payment limit in the UK currently stands at £30.

What about Barclays?

Barclays, now the only UK bank without Apple Pay, promised to roll out support for Apple’s mobile payments service “very early in the New Year.”

“We have signed up for ApplePay and will launch it very early in the New Year,” Barclays CEO of Personal and Corporate Banking, Ashok Vaswani, told a customer by email. “We truly value your custom and hope that you continue to bank with us particularly since we are launching this shortly.”

UK banks participating in Apple Pay now include Bank of Scotland, First Direct, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, M&S Bank, MBNA, Nationwide, NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Santander, Ulster Bank, TSB and Tesco Bank.

On a related note, Apple’s list of participating banks and institutions was updated this morning with an additional 95 US banks. The service is now supported by more than 750 participating institutions in the country.

Source: TSB, Tesco Bank