Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Meh, we have Venmo in the states. Works great, multiplatform and the money goes right into our bank account.
 
We already know from iOS 11 beta that there will be some kind of ID verification and it seems that a 3rd party bank or other financial entity will managing Apple Pay Cash card for P2P payments.

That is what I was saying. There has to be a bank or financial institution who handels the P-2-P payments. In the USA there’s a deal with Greendot. Boon. Would be the European equivalent.
 
Apple is becoming a bank then!

Nope. They are cooperating with Greendot using their prepaid card. It is nothing else than a prepaid card issued by Greendot with an Apple design. Greendot operates and maintains the account for the Apple user. There was some beta code found in iOS which requires an ID to set up Apple Pay Cash.
 
Why different currencies? Within Europe, 19 of 27 countries use the Euro as currency.

One could assume that 95% of the transaction will be in Euro.

And the other 8 currencies? Europe isn't just the Euro and what about new members, they are oblidged to take the Euro but they don't have to, they can veto like the 8 you mention.

So the point stands, it also stands if you want to pay someone in the US what happens then? Is it allowed or blocked.
 
And the other 8 currencies? Europe isn't just the Euro and what about new members, they are oblidged to take the Euro but they don't have to, they can veto like the 8 you mention.

So the point stands, it also stands if you want to pay someone in the US what happens then? Is it allowed or blocked.


I don't see it that Apple Pay Cash starts with inter-currency P2P (especially USD to EUR). There are too many issues which might be solved later (e.g. which money laundry laws are eligible?; what are the cost for exchange rates?).
 
Apple cash seems good.. Convenient way so no one is forced to only use Apple Pay at designated outlets or store fronts, where available, as an option.
 
Germany is still mostly cash these days so I don't expect ApplePay to get really popular anytime soon even if it was released today.
I disagree.
I use ApplePay (Boon and AppleWatch) every day (shopping @ Aldi, and almost everywhere) and I am much faster than the people with funky credit cards or cash. Cash sucks and cards waste time. If you have it, you want never return.
 
I disagree.
I use ApplePay every day (shopping @ Aldi, and almost everywhere) and I am much faster than the people with funky credit cards or cash. Cash sucks and Cards waste time. If you have it, you want never return.

That‘s you. Take a look outside your filter bubble. I can use Apple Pay and I did set it up for my wife (watch and phone), but she never uses it. She pays with her credit card and her PIN. That’s fine for her.
 
I'll bet the banks are sh!ting their pants.
How long over due are we for some serious disruptive technology in consumer banking?
I'm not saying Apple alone can take on the banks of the world but with the rise of the crypto currencies and peer to peer payments picking up momentum you just get a feeling that something big is coming that will change the landscape and bury a lot of dinosaurs.
 
That concerns Apple Pay in absolutely 0 ways. Apple Pay is not some obscure currency or anything of the sort. Apple Pay is a way to protect your transactions, but that doesn't mean you can't trace it. Apple Pay is your BANKS credit or debit card and when you make a purchase using Apple Pay what do you think happens and what do you see in your card statement? It is perfectly traceable if needed. It is no different from sending money one Revolut or N26 user to another. We already know from iOS 11 beta that there will be some kind of ID verification and it seems that a 3rd party bank or other financial entity will managing Apple Pay Cash card for P2P payments.

It certainly concerns Apple. Yes, it goes out of your account and into someone else account. Problem is, it's not a transaction between 2 banks, it's a transaction "owned" by Apple, an intermediary who is not registered as a bank and does not fall under the same legislation.

When you use Apple Pay in a store, it's essentially just another way of using your card to put money in a registered business's account. If you use Apple Pay between 2 persons, the only entity that has the information on between which accounts that transaction took place is Apple.

Sure, they'll probably use some bank to handle to transactions, but the receiving bank will have no knowledge of the sender bank, and the bank account involved. It's a helluva lot easier to get an AppleID than a bank account, that's for sure. I know it's difficult, my brother's wife moved here from Spain and it took her years to get a bank account.

Apple P2P Pay is a little bit like Western Union. You bet the 419:ers will be happy the day Apple P2P Pay is available to them.

The EU has very strict laws for money transfers, read the link I posted. I bought my car privately from Belgium and even though we're both in the EU, the transfer of money required me to fill in several forms, and we both had to make a trip to the bank to fill in more forms and present photo-ID, and the forms had to be signed off by a manager, took about an hour. And this was a transaction directly between 2 banks within the EU, no cash, no intermediary. To think that Apple could just swoop in and start transferring money between their users across EU is wishful thinking.
 
It certainly concerns Apple. Yes, it goes out of your account and into someone else account. Problem is, it's not a transaction between 2 banks, it's a transaction "owned" by Apple, an intermediary who is not registered as a bank and does not fall under the same legislation.

That’s not correct.

If Apple partners with a Bank - which they have to for obvious reasons - than we talk again a transaction between banks. The Apple Pay Cash Card is a prepaid-debit card issued by a bank in Apple design. You‘ll have contract with bank who issues the card not Apple.

What likely has to happen?

You‘ll have to identify yourself against the issuing bank. That means you prove that bank that you are the person xyz. You’ll receive a debit card like your normal credit card, with the only exceptions that the debit card is virtual use only (on all iOS , all macOS and all watchOS devices). Look at boon. this is the same procedures. Layout and technical restrictions does not care.

Apple has nothing to with the payment. Only card layout and the restriction that of devices are Apple related. Anything else is a transaction on banking level. Again, you have to be able to identify yourself (iOS 11 has code reference on this).

PayPal is also no bank nor has it a banking licenses. Interesting that you can still use PayPal in Europe.

When you use Apple Pay in a store, it's essentially just another way of using your card to put money in a registered business's account. If you use Apple Pay between 2 persons, the only entity that has the information on between which accounts that transaction took place is Apple.

Apple only is playing the transmitter of the payment. It’s like PayPal. You send money to your buddy via iMessage. Apple is - virtually - only the man in den middle. In the backend, it’s a transaction between two bank accounts.

Sure, they'll probably use some bank to handle to transactions, but the receiving bank will have no knowledge of the sender bank, and the bank account involved. It's a helluva lot easier to get an AppleID than a bank account, that's for sure. I know it's difficult, my brother's wife moved here from Spain and it took her years to get a bank account.

The Apple Cash Card is a pre-paid debit card and treated like a normal bank account issued by the bank. I know how difficult is in Germany to get a banking account - with PostIndent and fun like that (for credit cards).


The EU has very strict laws for money transfers, read the link I posted. I bought my car privately from Belgium and even though we're both in the EU, the transfer of money required me to fill in several forms, and we both had to make a trip to the bank to fill in more forms and present photo-ID, and the forms had to be signed off by a manager, took about an hour. And this was a transaction directly between 2 banks within the EU, no cash, no intermediary. To think that Apple could just swoop in and start transferring money between their users across EU is wishful thinking.

You are living in Sweden, right? Isn‘t Sweden using Payment methods like SEPA, which is 3 years old. When did you buy your car? Nowadays it much easier as the EU uses one common banking transfer system - SEPA. 5 years ago it was much tougher because each country had its own banking system. Germany for example had a combination of Banking Zip (8 digits + Account number). So each country had each own banking system - 29 in total. The easiest way of were cheques.

Additionally you are comparing apple with oranges if you compare Transaction of thousands of Euros with 10,- for a meal.
 
Last edited:
It certainly concerns Apple. Yes, it goes out of your account and into someone else account. Problem is, it's not a transaction between 2 banks, it's a transaction "owned" by Apple, an intermediary who is not registered as a bank and does not fall under the same legislation.

When you use Apple Pay in a store, it's essentially just another way of using your card to put money in a registered business's account. If you use Apple Pay between 2 persons, the only entity that has the information on between which accounts that transaction took place is Apple.

Sure, they'll probably use some bank to handle to transactions, but the receiving bank will have no knowledge of the sender bank, and the bank account involved. It's a helluva lot easier to get an AppleID than a bank account, that's for sure. I know it's difficult, my brother's wife moved here from Spain and it took her years to get a bank account.

Apple P2P Pay is a little bit like Western Union. You bet the 419:ers will be happy the day Apple P2P Pay is available to them.

The EU has very strict laws for money transfers, read the link I posted. I bought my car privately from Belgium and even though we're both in the EU, the transfer of money required me to fill in several forms, and we both had to make a trip to the bank to fill in more forms and present photo-ID, and the forms had to be signed off by a manager, took about an hour. And this was a transaction directly between 2 banks within the EU, no cash, no intermediary. To think that Apple could just swoop in and start transferring money between their users across EU is wishful thinking.
Sorry but you have no clue about this.
 
That would be great, I hope it will make it to EU soon.
I'm using Apple pay with a service called Boon since my bank doesn't support it, and there is a limit of €250 per month if I don't provide documents. If I do, the limits are higher, but still in place.
I guess there is some law that prevents services like Apple pay to allow the transfer of a lot of money that way, since it would be difficult to track. Maybe Apple will ask for ID in order to avoid the lower limit

It's just an anti-money-laundering (AML) limit
 
The car was bought this year, and it has become even more difficult than just one or two years ago since the money laundry directive came into effect. The transaction itself is no problem, the problem is getting it approved with your bank and the receivers bank. Even though we were both present (buyer and seller) with photo ID (Passport) and all forms were properly filled and signed by the manager, they could not guarantee that the receiving bank in Belgium wouldn't reject the payment, it had happened they said. It was €17500 so not really that much money, but hey, my bank denied me a loan until I had proof of sale of the previous car, for a sum of only €3000 that I had deposited in cash into my account.

And, in Sweden (I actually think the entire EU), PayPal is a bank, you have to prove your identity to be able to use it, unless using it as payment for say, eBay. As a payment for eBay, it's actually PayPal you pay the money, they transfer it to the seller. On my statement it just says I paid PayPal. It can be a real hassle as we in Sweden rely on our personal identification numbers to prove our identity but to use PayPal you have to prove your identity the european way, with utility bills (in my opinion bogus). The money laundry directive requires that all companies handling money transfers adhere to the directive. I know this since I've helped set up an account to be able to receive money, it took weeks of sending papers and forms!

It's almost unheard of to have an account with a bank out of country, and it's crazy difficult to obtain unless you visit the country and more or less register as living in that country and even then. We have a big problem in Sweden as asylum seekers are not qualified for accounts in Swedish banks which means they have to deal with cash all the time, even if they lived in Sweden for years awaiting citizenship.
So, Apple will have to partner with bank all across Europe to be able to provide the service, no european bank would accept accounts from people all over Europe, and I bet this service will be scrutinized constantly by the authorities.
 
Indeed, PayPal has a banking license (Luxembourg). I was not aware of it.

In Germany, you also need to go to post office to identity yourself for getting a bank account or credit card.

In your case, you‘ll also have a foreign-currency Transaction (kr to euro) which could alert Swedish banks to react more strictly.

It is easier to transfer money within the Eurozone. I still have mine German bank account and my wife her Dutch bank account. I have to transfer money from one to other account, I can transfer it much easier with the eurozone.

N26 - for example - offers a German banking account within the eurozone (Italy, France, Spain) under German banking license(security fund, German IBAN, german Credit Card).

And:

It is only a trademark filing. There are no other details on how it is implemented - no partner. There has been speculation in the background, that boon. (Wirecard) could be a partner within the Eurozone.
 
Last edited:
I'll bet the banks are sh!ting their pants.
How long over due are we for some serious disruptive technology in consumer banking?
I'm not saying Apple alone can take on the banks of the world but with the rise of the crypto currencies and peer to peer payments picking up momentum you just get a feeling that something big is coming that will change the landscape and bury a lot of dinosaurs.
In North America you seriously need someone to change things up. In Canada most banks charge you fee's if you make so many transactions with your card every month. In the USA some banks charge you for not making enough transactions and you have to jump through a load of of hoops to avoid paying a monthly transaction fee. I think one of the reasons why credit cards are so popular in North America is because you can use them without any fee's being levied and so long as you pay the balance at the end of the month you won't even be charged interest. I often see German's on here saying they don't have credit cards (they do but they are rare) and I don't think they realise how credit cards in other countries offer many benefits beyond borrowing money. Over there it is different, and if you borrow money over there loans etc are more affordable (I think it's illegal to charge over 40% APR on finance deals in Germany) and easier to access than other countries where credit cards and pay day loans cover many of the 'quick access' loans.

Anyway, here in the UK a basic current account is free to use, some of them may not give you overdrafts etc, but they all give you the basic debit card ability without having to pay for transactions etc. Of course you can get accounts that you pay for, but they usually offer extra benefits, such as travel insurance etc.

Maybe in North America a new player is needed, pre-paid cards and possible an Apple Pay card is a move towards that. You certainly need to change the way banking os done over there, especially as the world moves away from bank notes and coins.
 
In North America you seriously need someone to change things up. In Canada most banks charge you fee's if you make so many transactions with your card every month. In the USA some banks charge you for not making enough transactions and you have to jump through a load of of hoops to avoid paying a monthly transaction fee. I think one of the reasons why credit cards are so popular in North America is because you can use them without any fee's being levied and so long as you pay the balance at the end of the month you won't even be charged interest.

The problem in North America that the banking market is more less fragment. Yeah, there are big banks (Bank of America, Wells Fargo, etc.), but really small local credit unions have not a small share of the market.

I often see German's on here saying they don't have credit cards (they do but they are rare) and I don't think they realise how credit cards in other countries offer many benefits beyond borrowing money. Over there it is different, and if you borrow money over there loans etc are more affordable (I think it's illegal to charge over 40% APR on finance deals in Germany) and easier to access than other countries where credit cards and pay day loans cover many of the 'quick access' loans.

Germany is quite conservative regarding financial. It starts with the discussion on how much you earn. Furthermore, a lot of people are not that technical interested.

Another thing is, that people are skeptical versus their bank. Many would prefer to put their money under the pillow than leaving it at a bank. The banks lost trust.

Germany may have the worldwide best security funds (balance < 100.000€ per account are secured in fund against bankruptcy). But during the financial crisis, the government needed to say that the government assure that no clients lose their money.

And finally, in the current non interest rates period, the inflation actually eats up on their savings. Additionally the banks are charging for money from the ATM or if you do not have a monthly income. So on and so forth.

Paying with debit may come now with the contactless girocard. But the funny thing is. Even though it has the lowest adoption rate of credit cards, in 2015 Germany had 955,1 million transaction, with a transaction amounts 84,23 billion euros (both best in the eurozone). Almost every second German (age 18 or older) had a credit card.

Anyway, here in the UK a basic current account is free to use, some of them may not give you overdrafts etc, but they all give you the basic debit card ability without having to pay for transactions etc. Of course you can get accounts that you pay for, but they usually offer extra benefits, such as travel insurance etc.

Maybe in North America a new player is needed, pre-paid cards and possible an Apple Pay card is a move towards that. You certainly need to change the way banking os done over there, especially as the world moves away from bank notes and coins.

The financial sector might have the toughest restrictions (along the pharmaceutical industry) of all industries. That’s is why they are slow. Every minor adjustment in processing chain needs to be approved by local or international authorities (e.g. SEC, BaFin).

Other industries can adjust much quicker as they are not regulated as strict as the financial sector (or pharmaceutical industry)
 
not in UK, because of Brexit
Apple fans in UK are disappointed lol
The UK hasn't left the EU yet. Negotiations to us leaving have only just begun and are in the very early stages. By the time we leave Apple would have had P2P Apple Pay in the UK and EU for years. Even when the we do leave there is still the possibility that we go with with EU trademarks still being recognised in the UK, in fact it will be 99.9% likely that all existing EU trademarks will be recognised in the UK, with a transition period being applied for new EU trademarks being recognised in the UK. Failing all of that, Apple will have plenty of time of time to register the trademark in the UK by the time the UK leaves the EU.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.