I have used Apple Pay in Germany since the day one in October 2014 so I feel more or less qualified to write about my experience with German system and to refute lot of misconceptions and stereotypes.
First of all, I do empirically refute the screen shot of supposedly Apple Pay for Germany. The process of adding and authorising German bank card is not shown. No video of Apple Pay with German bank card has ever been posted. When I added my debit card from the American bank in 2014, I switched the Sprache/Region (Language/Region) to Vereinigten Staaten (United States), I saw all of information in German and was able to activate the card. Every iOS version from 8 on has the same activation screen in German language. Don’t believe me? Try set your iPhone to German language and United States region and see the Wallet.
When I started using the Apple Pay on the day one, I had a steep learning curve of which card readers are NFC-enabled and which aren’t. Today, I see more newer NFC-enabled card readers installed than the older ones, and many of them are integrated with the point-of-sale cash registers, meaning the seamless payments using cards. In 2014 and 2015, I could remember which one had new card readers, but many of them already have updated their system so it’s really moot for me to remember which places anymore. I hardly pay with cash nowadays: it’s due to clever manouevre in avoiding the stores that don’t have card readers (it’s not hard to do that today).
While many commenters griped about the shambolic situation in the United States with Apple Pay at retail stores, I haven’t experienced that in Germany yet, mostly the places that can’t or don’t want to accept MasterCard and Visa (about two or three instances so far). I have come across probably one or two newer card readers with NFC function disabled so far.
Due to the new European Union directive enacted in December 2015 (EU 2015/751), the transaction fee is now limited to 0.2% for debit card (EC and Giro) and 0.3% for credit card from January 2016 on. That started the boom of adopting the card transactions and the rapid upgrade to the newer card readers in Germany. Even the public toilets accept the MasterCard and Visa for paying €1 usage fee. That was godsend for me when nature call came so strongly and no coins available…
Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd, notorious for being so tightwad about money, had installed the NFC-enabled card readers and promoted the contactless payment with MasterCard and Visa. It is cheaper to use the card transaction than to use the cash because they would have to have a trusted person counting all of coins and banknotes, entering the amount in the computer, putting them together in the secured pouches, bringing them to the bank (or hiring the secured transport company to do that), and so forth. In addition, cash transactions are often fraught with theft or mistakes.
The minimum amount for card payment has been mostly eliminated. The business still holding onto the minimum amount is increasingly mocked for that. Cheapest I ever paid with Apple Pay was €0.69 for a bottle of water.
GfK, the German consumer research organisation, recently did a survey on speed and determined that the contactless payment is twice faster than cash. Thus, many supermarkets and discount stores have promoted the contactless payment heavily as to speed up the queues. It does take longer to fish out an elusive coin or two for exact change than it takes the cashier to check all of items since German check-out cashiers are famous for rapid-fire action of swiping each item through barcode readers. I see more and more Germans hemming and huffing at the poor saps who endlessly and infinitely dig deeper and deeper in the wallets for one or two elusive coins at the cashier.
Granted, lot has changed since my first ever transaction with Apple Pay in October 2014, using iOS 8. Today, Apple Pay is so blindly fast that the process starts before I have a chance to tap iPhone on the card reader. The fastest ever with Apple Pay was at OBI, which took less than two seconds for the entire transaction.
As mentioned elsewhere in the comment, Germans have discovered the payback or rebate programmes and used them extensively. Payback, the popular rebate programme, has a tie-in with American Express card, encouraging the Germans to shop with American Express as to collect more points. Ditto for Lufthansa Miles & More and other frequent flyer programmes.
To encourage more contactless payments, several telecom companies offer the SIM cards with integrated NFC technology, allowing the customers to use smartphones for contactless payments. Many German banks have contactless debit card option available for their customers to peruse.
What’s more, many German banks have excellent banking apps for the smartphones. That affords instantaneous monitoring of the bank accounts. Germans used to look in the wallets and see how much money they had in the past. They now look in the smartphone apps and online banking to see how much they have and to see what they spent on. That encouraged many banks to incur the fees for printing out the bank account statements and withdrawing cash in excess of €100 (namely Sparkasse). I annoy my mum to use her iPhone instead of stopping by her bank for printed statement every time we’re in city centre for shopping or eating.
Now, what ruffed my feather more every time there’s announcement by Apple…and Germany isn’t on the A-List yet.
I get miffed every time when some cashiers don’t understand or know about the contactless payment technology. Some insisted on handing them the cards so they could insert them themselves. I had to explain what I wanted to do or insist on activating the card reader so I could do it myself. Some required me to sign the receipt when it’s not necessary (especially Galerie Kaufhof).
And lastly…
My biggest peeve is those tiresome and irritating old German stereotypes that commenters keep mentioning every time there’s announcement about new countries being added to the Apple Pay. Lot has changed in the last ten years, ok? Even more in the last three years.
First of all, I do empirically refute the screen shot of supposedly Apple Pay for Germany. The process of adding and authorising German bank card is not shown. No video of Apple Pay with German bank card has ever been posted. When I added my debit card from the American bank in 2014, I switched the Sprache/Region (Language/Region) to Vereinigten Staaten (United States), I saw all of information in German and was able to activate the card. Every iOS version from 8 on has the same activation screen in German language. Don’t believe me? Try set your iPhone to German language and United States region and see the Wallet.
When I started using the Apple Pay on the day one, I had a steep learning curve of which card readers are NFC-enabled and which aren’t. Today, I see more newer NFC-enabled card readers installed than the older ones, and many of them are integrated with the point-of-sale cash registers, meaning the seamless payments using cards. In 2014 and 2015, I could remember which one had new card readers, but many of them already have updated their system so it’s really moot for me to remember which places anymore. I hardly pay with cash nowadays: it’s due to clever manouevre in avoiding the stores that don’t have card readers (it’s not hard to do that today).
While many commenters griped about the shambolic situation in the United States with Apple Pay at retail stores, I haven’t experienced that in Germany yet, mostly the places that can’t or don’t want to accept MasterCard and Visa (about two or three instances so far). I have come across probably one or two newer card readers with NFC function disabled so far.
Due to the new European Union directive enacted in December 2015 (EU 2015/751), the transaction fee is now limited to 0.2% for debit card (EC and Giro) and 0.3% for credit card from January 2016 on. That started the boom of adopting the card transactions and the rapid upgrade to the newer card readers in Germany. Even the public toilets accept the MasterCard and Visa for paying €1 usage fee. That was godsend for me when nature call came so strongly and no coins available…
Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd, notorious for being so tightwad about money, had installed the NFC-enabled card readers and promoted the contactless payment with MasterCard and Visa. It is cheaper to use the card transaction than to use the cash because they would have to have a trusted person counting all of coins and banknotes, entering the amount in the computer, putting them together in the secured pouches, bringing them to the bank (or hiring the secured transport company to do that), and so forth. In addition, cash transactions are often fraught with theft or mistakes.
The minimum amount for card payment has been mostly eliminated. The business still holding onto the minimum amount is increasingly mocked for that. Cheapest I ever paid with Apple Pay was €0.69 for a bottle of water.
GfK, the German consumer research organisation, recently did a survey on speed and determined that the contactless payment is twice faster than cash. Thus, many supermarkets and discount stores have promoted the contactless payment heavily as to speed up the queues. It does take longer to fish out an elusive coin or two for exact change than it takes the cashier to check all of items since German check-out cashiers are famous for rapid-fire action of swiping each item through barcode readers. I see more and more Germans hemming and huffing at the poor saps who endlessly and infinitely dig deeper and deeper in the wallets for one or two elusive coins at the cashier.
Granted, lot has changed since my first ever transaction with Apple Pay in October 2014, using iOS 8. Today, Apple Pay is so blindly fast that the process starts before I have a chance to tap iPhone on the card reader. The fastest ever with Apple Pay was at OBI, which took less than two seconds for the entire transaction.
As mentioned elsewhere in the comment, Germans have discovered the payback or rebate programmes and used them extensively. Payback, the popular rebate programme, has a tie-in with American Express card, encouraging the Germans to shop with American Express as to collect more points. Ditto for Lufthansa Miles & More and other frequent flyer programmes.
To encourage more contactless payments, several telecom companies offer the SIM cards with integrated NFC technology, allowing the customers to use smartphones for contactless payments. Many German banks have contactless debit card option available for their customers to peruse.
What’s more, many German banks have excellent banking apps for the smartphones. That affords instantaneous monitoring of the bank accounts. Germans used to look in the wallets and see how much money they had in the past. They now look in the smartphone apps and online banking to see how much they have and to see what they spent on. That encouraged many banks to incur the fees for printing out the bank account statements and withdrawing cash in excess of €100 (namely Sparkasse). I annoy my mum to use her iPhone instead of stopping by her bank for printed statement every time we’re in city centre for shopping or eating.
Now, what ruffed my feather more every time there’s announcement by Apple…and Germany isn’t on the A-List yet.
I get miffed every time when some cashiers don’t understand or know about the contactless payment technology. Some insisted on handing them the cards so they could insert them themselves. I had to explain what I wanted to do or insist on activating the card reader so I could do it myself. Some required me to sign the receipt when it’s not necessary (especially Galerie Kaufhof).
And lastly…
My biggest peeve is those tiresome and irritating old German stereotypes that commenters keep mentioning every time there’s announcement about new countries being added to the Apple Pay. Lot has changed in the last ten years, ok? Even more in the last three years.
