Apple on Tuesday added 18 new banks and credit unions to the growing list of Apple Pay-supporting issuers in the United States. With these additions, Apple Pay is now supported by more than 400 financial institutions nationwide.
Launched in October of last year, Apple Pay is a mobile payment service that allows users to pay for goods and services using iPhone or Apple Watch. It's accepted at hundreds of thousands of retailers and restaurants around the country.
Apple Pay certainly has a long way to go before it becomes ubiquitous. The service is currently available on a limited basis in the United States and the United Kingdom and is yet to hit major markets such as Canada, Japan, Germany, Italy and more.
In Australia (or colloquially, Down Under), banks are reportedly reluctant to give up on interchange fees in exchange for seamless technology and are said to loathe a third-party providing an extra layer between them and their customers at the point of sale.
CurrentC, the mobile payments app back by a consortium of major retailers known as MCX, may not launch until 2016, Recode reports. The outlet spoke with MCX CEO Brian Mooney yesterday, and he says that the app may not be ready to go this year like originally planned.
A public pilot of the app will go live in Ohio next month, and Mooney says that MCX won't push for a wider rollout if it's not ready. "This is a long game," he said said. “Certainly going faster is always better — that’s not necessarily a debatable point. But we’re going to do it right."
Rite Aid, a drugstore chain in the United States, announced Tuesday it will begin accepting both Apple Pay and Google Wallet starting this coming Saturday, August 15. The company famously disabled support for Apple's mobile payment service nationwide, even though it was supported at Apple Pay launch.
The move put Rite Aid at odds with regulators and lawyers who launched an investigation under suspicion that the pharmacy chain violated federal antitrust laws by colluding with other MCX members to boycott rival payment systems such as Apple Pay and Google Wallet.
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.
Pei Wei, a restaurant chain in the United States, announced Wednesday that it has begun accepting Apple Pay in all of its nearly 200 locations for customers using iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch.
“Accepting Apple Pay is a win for Pei Wei because it’s convenient and gives our guests the flexibility to use their preferred method of payment,” said Pei Wei CEO Ralph Bower.
Two weeks after Apple Pay launched in the United Kingdom, HSBC and First Direct customers can now use the service. Both banks were originally supposed to support Apple Pay at launch, and were even mentioned in Apple's support document listing participating banks, but were delayed due to “some issues” until late July.
Apple Pay in the UK imposes a £20 transaction limit as a security measure due to outdated POS terminals. Apple said the £20 limit will increase to £30 in September. The cap will go away once retailers roll out more modern contactless payment terminals.
As promised, Apple Pay has officially launched today in the United Kingdom. While the service is accepted virtually anywhere there's NFC, only cards issued by US, and now UK banks, can be added to Apple Pay for the time being.
According to Apple's website, the contactless mobile payment solution is supported across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland via cards from American Express, First Direct, HSBC, Nationwide, NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Santander and Ulster Bank.
According to The Telegraph, UK users can now pay with Apple Pay at more than 250,000 points of sale throughout the country, including Waitrose and London's transportation networks.
MasterCard on Friday announced it'll enable Apple Pay at Great American Ball Park in time for the 2015 MLB All-Star game. Fans attending the game in Cincinnati will be permitted to pay for on-site food and merchandise with their iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus or Apple Watch during the week-long festivities, the card issuer has said.
Realized through partnership with Major League Baseball Advanced Media, the initiative will bring NFC contactless payment acceptance to the 2015 MLB All-Star Week festivities so owners of NFC-enabled Android handsets may be able to make on-site purchases with their phones.
The Apple Watch has built-in NFC, which stands for Near-Field Communication, for making wireless payments on the go. And in a typical Apple fashion, the watch doesn't even have to be in the range of its paired iPhone, nor does it have to establish a network connection, to make the payment.
Before you can start making payments with a flick of your wrist, you're going to need to set up Apple Pay on your Apple Watch. In this tutorial, I'm going to lay it all out for your and explain how to set up, manage and use Apple Pay with your Apple Watch.
If you thought paying with Apple Pay is ridiculously easy and frictionless, think again. No, I'm not referring to Android Pay, Google's near exact replica of Apple Pay that was unveiled at Google I/O yesterday.
Quietly unveiled yesterday, Hands Free is a new Google mobile app currently unavailable to the general public that promises to let you make in-store purchases without ever reaching for that phone in your pocket.
Details are scarce at the moment but it seems that Hands Free requires you to just tell the cashier you’d like to pay with Google. It's basically Android Pay without taking your phone.
Apple is about to make its mobile payment system even more appealing to merchants and customers with a likely introduction of a rewards program for Apple Pay at WWDC next month, The New York Times said Thursday.
“Apple is preparing to announce details about enhancements to Apple Pay at its software conference next month,” reads the article. “Those include a rewards program for the mobile wallet service, said two people briefed on the product.”