Apple Pay Expected to Launch in Austria in 'Coming Months'

[MacRumors]

Apple Pay will launch in Austria in the "coming months," according to well-known Austrian newspaper Der Standard. The report cites two unnamed sources and says Bank Austria could be one of the participating issuers.

Apple Pay first debuted in the United States in October 2014, and its availability has since expanded to over 20 countries and territories around the world, most recently including Norway, Poland, and the Ukraine:
United States
United Kingdom
Australia
Canada
Singapore
Switzerland
Hong Kong
France
Russia
China
Japan
New Zealand
Spain
Taiwan
IrelandGuernsey
Isle of Man
Jersey
Italy
San Marino
Vatican City
Denmark
Finland
Sweden
United Arab Emirates
Brazil
Ukraine
Poland
NorwayApple Pay enables users to add a debit or credit card from participating banks to the Wallet app and pay with a compatible iPhone or Apple Watch at stores that accept contactless payments, or in apps and on the web.

(Thanks, Michael and Rudolf!)

Article Link: Apple Pay Expected to Launch in Austria in 'Coming Months'

 

[TheralSadurns]

Cue my rant about Apple Pay still not being available in Germany...

 

[Icestyle]

yay!
I'm using boon (Ireland) since December '17 and always pay with my Apple Watch. Haven't had to pay with cash even once since then...
As I am also a customer of Bank Austria, this makes me happy as I wouldn't have to preload money into boon anymore.

 

[atikalz]

Would be nice, if some neighbor country could invade Germany so we can finally get Apple Pay this way.

 

[Martius]

Please please Czech Republic. It's so close

 

[Agneev]

Please tell me that the Pope has used Apple Pay.

 

[Mike MA]

Till last week I actually blamed local banks for blocking Apple Pay in most of the countries (specifically Germany) still waiting for Apple Pay to arrive. Yet I see Google Pay making faster progress here, so Apple surely can also be blamed I guess.

 

[Robert.Walter]

Germany, Austria and Switzerland have been a tough nut to crack because of banking kartells in those countries.

Switzerland has Apple Pay but not at any significant players. There are a couple of local players that offer it (GKB and Linth) and some specialty credit card offerers (Cornerbank, Lufthansa, etc.) but none of the big national or regional banks do. Reason is collusion and that they are pushing their own moribund national Twint solution.

Austrian banks are likewise blocking customer choice but without AFAIK any seeming home grown payment alternative. The breakthrough here with Bank Austria is probably that it is 96% owned by Italy’s UniCredit bank (who is an Apple Pay partner).

Germany is slowly being ringed by countries with Apple Pay. Maybe more German customers will start to demand their banks or card offerers offer Apple Pay.

In the meantime, I’m surprised there has not been an investigation by either the German or EU cartel authorities into why nobody has signed up with Apple. To me this is a sign there is a high level of collusion going on in the banking sectors of countries where Apple Pay has not been offered or is offered but buy few, or none, of the big banks.

As soon as Apple get one decent bank in Germany to agree it’s terms, then, unless the German banks continue to band together in a cartel like in Switzerland, the dam will break.

 

[[AUT] Thomas]

@Robert.Walter seems to be the problem is not just the banks but the whole system behind them. N26 said they would offer it (like in any other country in which they already do), but at the moment can't or won't in DE & AT. (I didn't look up why exactly they don't do it.)
Also, rest assured, generally speaking banking in AT is much worse than in DE except for ATM-fees.
Literally every banking startup Austria ever had either died trying or moved to Germany (N26). That pretty much sums it up. Even in the past, Austrian banks cooked their own soup rather than adopting a standard. They developed their own backend protocol (called MBS IP) rather than adopting the German HBCI/FinTS, naturally tools like Microsoft Money never worked in Austria. Needless to say, MBS access is quite expensive. Frankly, as per my point of view Austrian banks are like a cartell. They deserve everything coming to them.

 

[DeepIn2U]

Cue my rant about Apple Pay still not being available in Germany...

As long as Arnold is happy and doesn’t have to ‘ get to the Choppa’ ! (Lol I said this like Arnold did in Predator vía Siri dictation and got it perfect in 1 shot!!
[doublepost=1531328264][/doublepost]

Till last week I actually blamed local banks for blocking Apple Pay in most of the countries (specifically Germany) still waiting for Apple Pay to arrive. Yet I see Google Pay making faster progress here, so Apple surely can also be blamed I guess.

Of course you’ll have native German banks giving pushback to Apple. The government they are uses Linick’s as their infrastructure so it’s only natural that are going to go with Google.

 

[Kaibelf]

Till last week I actually blamed local banks for blocking Apple Pay in most of the countries (specifically Germany) still waiting for Apple Pay to arrive. Yet I see Google Pay making faster progress here, so Apple surely can also be blamed I guess.

Blamed? The banks want you to use their own systems because they can monetize your buying patterns and sell you crap and also sell data it harvests to “trusted partners.” Apple refuses to give them this data, whereas Google does share profiles on people (because that’s also how THEY make money). If anything, blame the banks for refusing to embrace convenience because they want you to only ever use their own products and want you to log into their apps to they can try to get you to open yet another of their credit cards.

 

[Junior117]

Meanwhile, I'm still trying to figure out what's taking the Credit Unions of Ontario so long to adopt Apple Pay. The major banks have been all on it and even some I had no idea existed are in there; you'd think they'd be on top of this.

 

[Mike MA]

Blamed? The banks want you to use their own systems because they can monetize your buying patterns and sell you crap and also sell data it harvests to “trusted partners.” Apple refuses to give them this data, whereas Google does share profiles on people (because that’s also how THEY make money). If anything, blame the banks for refusing to embrace convenience because they want you to only ever use their own products and want you to log into their apps to they can try to get you to open yet another of their credit cards.

Yes and no. Obviously there are enough countries where a trade off was achieved between the banks and Apple. So you’re right basically and in a nutshell repeated what I said. But especially in Germany some awkward things are happening that no progress is visible at all. That was my main thought without actually mentioning it explicitly.

 

[docfred]

Blamed? The banks want you to use their own systems because they can monetize your buying patterns and sell you crap and also sell data it harvests to “trusted partners.” Apple refuses to give them this data, whereas Google does share profiles on people (because that’s also how THEY make money). If anything, blame the banks for refusing to embrace convenience because they want you to only ever use their own products and want you to log into their apps to they can try to get you to open yet another of their credit cards.

With Apple Pay the card issuers know excactly the same as they know without Apple Pay.

And if you want to blame someone for locking you into his system .... Apple?

 

[mdellepi]

Would be nice, if some neighbor country could invade Germany so we can finally get Apple Pay this way.

I have read somewhere that iOS 12 adds Apple Pay support for Maestro and V-Pay cards. Since, as far as I know, most German girocards actually include also one of the two, it could be a good sign for Apple Pay coming to Germany this fall. It seems support for their stupid cards was the main request by German big banks to jump on board...

 

[docfred]

I have read somewhere that iOS 12 adds Apple Pay support for Maestro and V-Pay cards.

no - it - does - not.

Maestro and V-Pay are supported for months if not years by ApplePay. It is already in use in France and Italy.


Sad that this wrong information (newly added) is being spreaded over and over again...

 

[mdellepi]

no - it - does - not.

Maestro and V-Pay are supported for months if not years by ApplePay. It is already in use in France and Italy.


Sad that this wrong information (newly added) is being spreaded over and over again...

Oh, ok. I was referring to articles like this one:

http://www.maclife.de/news/ios-12-kann-deutsche-ec-karten-apple-pay-unterstuetzen-100104185.html

But it’s true, the VPay and Maestro logos are already in the Apple Pay Italian website.

It’s also true that there has been some variation in the API in iOS 12, though.

 

[docfred]

Right, there have been additions. I think for payments on websites or somethink like that. But for POS maestro and vpay are nothing new.

That's the sad part about online journalism. Somebody misinterprets something and other sites just copy the whole story without doublechecking.

 

[mdellepi]

Right, there have been additions. I think for payments on websites or somethink like that. But for POS maestro and vpay are nothing new.

That's the sad part about online journalism. Somebody misinterprets something and other sites just copy the whole story without doublechecking.

Well, in this case it has also something to do with the desperate need of any piece of info on when Apple Pay might come to Germany

 

[ManDark]

yay!
I'm using boon (Ireland) since December '17 and always pay with my Apple Watch. Haven't had to pay with cash even once since then...
As I am also a customer of Bank Austria, this makes me happy as I wouldn't have to preload money into boon anymore.

Hello i have also registered to boon France, i have tried to pay 3 times but without sucess didn't try to do anything since, and yes i have already send some mone to that account.

Do you ahve maybee some tips ?

 

[docfred]

Hello i have also registered to boon France, i have tried to pay 3 times but without sucess didn't try to do anything since, and yes i have already send some mone to that account.

Do you ahve maybee some tips ?

with the french account you have to upgrade to boon. Plus in order to pay outside of France.

 

[ceggerl]

Germany, Austria and Switzerland have been a tough nut to crack because of banking kartells in those countries.

Switzerland has Apple Pay but not at any significant players. There are a couple of local players that offer it (GKB and Linth) and some specialty credit card offerers (Cornerbank, Lufthansa, etc.) but none of the big national or regional banks do. Reason is collusion and that they are pushing their own moribund national Twint solution.

Austrian banks are likewise blocking customer choice but without AFAIK any seeming home grown payment alternative. The breakthrough here with Bank Austria is probably that it is 96% owned by Italy’s UniCredit bank (who is an Apple Pay partner).

Germany is slowly being ringed by countries with Apple Pay. Maybe more German customers will start to demand their banks or card offerers offer Apple Pay.

In the meantime, I’m surprised there has not been an investigation by either the German or EU cartel authorities into why nobody has signed up with Apple. To me this is a sign there is a high level of collusion going on in the banking sectors of countries where Apple Pay has not been offered or is offered but buy few, or none, of the big banks.

As soon as Apple get one decent bank in Germany to agree it’s terms, then, unless the German banks continue to band together in a cartel like in Switzerland, the dam will break.

In Austria most Banks are pushing BlueCode and Zoin.