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Apple Pay Coming to Germany, Also Set to Launch at CVS and 7-11 Later This Year
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Bout doggone time! They should have never jumped on that CurrentC bandwagon to nowhere
Maybe. But on the other hand they are currently revising their online banking capabilities. Furthermore, they launched an android only way to pay contactless. Maybe they have recognized the populaity and the many requests demanding Apple Pay.
I live in Ulm right now, of course the big supermarkets accept cards. But the bakeries, hairdressers, onboard ticketing on the busses, most restaurants and bars, they all only take cash. Even topping up my student ID, transport ticket machines, some big retail stores (eg Sportsohn) only accept EC/maestro cards.
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I live in Ulm, and my experience has been that I have to carry cash everywhere. Big supermarkets and chain restaurants are fine. The problems are with the small businesses and restaurants and even the transport ticket machines. Most of them are cash only or EC card only, let alone contactless/Mastercard/Visa/Amex. Shops often laugh at me for asking if they accept cards.
Me too. CVS was the only place with contactless terminals in my area when Apple Pay launched, so I went over that day and bought a package of M&Ms or something just to try it. I'm pretty sure they'd disabled it within a day or two after that.
In my case, I've pretty much stopped shopping at CVS as a result--if they turn off my preferred method of payment for no reason other than to data mine customers, I'll take my money elsewhere.
Not sure I'm going to start shopping there again at this point, but at least I won't feel like I'm supporting the concept of that Current C abomination if I do (not that I'd use it, just that CVS was such an supporter that they went out of their way to disable something you shouldn't even be able to disable).
That argument never made sense to me. That’s for their loyalty card cards are for. To track you.
The mentioned discounters did not offer card payments 20 years ago and only recently accepted credit cards. The guy above is absolutely right with his assessment. Paying with cards in Germany is not as easy as in other countries and they have probably only in the last 2 years or so caught up.
Rumors had it for Austria being first.....sad it wasn’t mentioned
I'm suprised as well it wasn't mentioned officially during the earnings call.
In the end, all we've had was rumors from derStandard
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/07/11/apple-pay-austria-release-date-rumor/
I regularly use Apple Pay (attached to a US account) in Germany. It works at any contactless terminal that isn't EC-only.
Most of the Germans/locals I speak are looking forward to their bank supporting Apple Pay.
Most of the Germans/locals I speak are looking forward to their bank supporting Apple Pay.
Visa has been running a ton contactless Visa Card ads on TV lately, perhaps this will drive even more store to contactless terminals. Wal-Mart Pay has become much faster, but it’s still at least three or four steps to bring it up. I would much prefer Apple Pay. Newer Sheetz stores also take Apple Pay at the pump.
I bet Target folds and ultimately takes Apple Pay I’m stores...I doubt Wal-Mart ever will. Would love if Publix would take it!
I bet Target folds and ultimately takes Apple Pay I’m stores...I doubt Wal-Mart ever will. Would love if Publix would take it!
WMP does take a few steps but I always use it. It's tied to their "Savings Catcher" program and our AMEX card. I wouldn't use it if it was limited to a debit card...
Wrong. E.g. ALDI and most of the major discounters accepts ApplePay (via Boon) since about 2 years in Germany. This isn't the Middle Ages, please don't tell horror stories.
Rikscha (GB), I cordially invite you to visit Europe. ;-)
how is your Walgreens rewards integrated into ApplePay? I have a Walgreens rewards card that's store in my AppleWallet, along with my credit cards but the two are not integrated at all.
Target at least gives me 5% off for using their card... it's not enough to cover taxes... but at least I get back SOMETHING.
It is actually 0.2% for ec cards and 0.3% of the transaction for major CC cards by EU law. American Express is not widely accept so falls under this rule. Thus they can charge higher fees and thus many stores are not interested in starting to accept them for example
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You are talking about credit cards. EC cards have been around for more than a decade. Granted, that doesn’t help foreigners who travel the country and don’t have that card. Fun fact: that was until recently even worse in china with union pay
It still kinda is. Since China never really adopted cards for payments, they jumped straight to WeChat and Alipay. Which would be fine if foreigners could easily use those services, except that they can't.
Actually, the EC system has been dead for more than a decade! There’s no EC card any more. What people mean when they say EC is debit card (as opposed to credit card; never mind the concept of a debit VISA card) and they don’t know the difference between Girocard, Maestro, and V Pay. "We only accept EC" is a curse as you never know what system the machine works with. Staff have no idea. I live in Germany with a Dutch bank account and debit card (Maestro) and I hate, hate, HATE when people say EC. It’s a non-information: Imagine you want to have dinner somewhere and people are too ignorant to be able to tell you if your card will work or not. These too letters can’t die too soon.
I stopped shopping at Target for groceries and CVS altogether. Walgreens and Sprouts both take Apple Pay.
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Loyalty cards are opt-in. Credit/debit card let them track without opt-in.
Wasn't/isn't visa VPay coming in iOS, doesn't that mean lots more countries are ApplePay "enabled".
Some places where I live (in the US) have started offering discounts for paying in cash. The thing everybody seems to forget is that these payment processors skim money off every transaction, and that's terrible for small businesses. I pay in cash whenever possible because I want that money to go to my deli and not some big corporation.
Girocard is the new name of the EC-Card network (although most people still seem to say EC-Card). A Girocard may or may not support Mastercard's Maestro or Visa's V-Card network in addition to the Girocard one (that was already the case when it was still called EC-Card).
My point is: People don’t know the difference between Girocard (which is rather successor of than new name of EC) and Maestro or V Pay. Almost all Girocards are co-branded with either Maestro or V Pay so the majority seems to assume "it's all the same".
The problem arises not in the form of cards but at the terminal. Many shop owners have no clue, not to mention staff. "EC" is all they know and all it means to them is "not a credit card", a binary question. In the end they might accept Maestro cards or not - and they find out by trying what works / shrugging their shoulders. As a customer with a non-Girocard debit card you’re non-existant.
Eradicating the term "EC" puts an end to the binary world view. Needs to happen.