Apple Pay Expected to Launch in Belgium Tomorrow

[MacRumors]

Apple Pay will launch in Belgium on Wednesday, according to Belgian newspaper De Tijd. The report, citing sources, claims Belgium's largest bank BNP Paribas Fortis will be the exclusive Apple Pay partner in the country at launch. The bank offers a variety of Visa and Mastercard credit cards and debit cards.

Belgium would become the 30th region where Apple Pay is officially available. Apple Pay is also set to launch in Germany later this year, as Apple CEO Tim Cook announced in July, and is "coming soon" in Saudi Arabia per Apple.com.

Apple Pay first launched in the United States in October 2014 and has since expanded to many other countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, China, Singapore, Switzerland, France, Japan, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Russia, New Zealand, Brazil, Poland, Ireland, and Ukraine.

Article Link: Apple Pay Expected to Launch in Belgium Tomorrow

 

[s66]

x

 

[Mac-lover3]

Oh hell yeah! Finally! The one feature I've been waiting for.

 

[Jimmy James]

All the better to buy chocolate with.

 

[arvacker]

Oh hell yeah! Finally! The one feature I've been waiting for.

+1
I hate carying a wallet with me, now just my phone should suffice!

 

[ksec]

October, 2014 was when Apple Pay first launch.

4 Years!. Apple needs to start thinking how to speed up some of their recent services execution world wide. I know it is better to be right than to be quick. But 4 years is a long time.

 

[s66]

x

 

[arvacker]

Hmm, adult Belgians are required by law to carry their eID ...

I know, but so far have never been fined for it.
I also keep my ID fairly close in my bag with laptop, or in the car for example, just really dislike having a wallet in my back or jacket pocket.

 

[s66]

x

 

[ksec]

October, 2014 was when Apple Pay first launch.

4 Years!. Apple needs to start thinking how to speed up some of their recent services execution world wide. I know it is better to be right than to be quick. But 4 years is a long time.

And Now it is time to get those Public Travel Cards ( Oyster cards in UK ) to be included inside Apple Pay, as well as all the other NFC, Felica / MiFare functions. Work with Banks to get rid of ATM Cards. ( Yes, Cash is still useful )

And Finally, where is Apple Pay Cash? Do I have to wait another 4 years before it is available in other countries?

Apple, you could have made iPhone Subscription Services, AppleCare+, iCloud, with Add on like Apple Music, Apple TV, Apple Magazine ALL under one subscription. That is deducted monthly from Apple Pay Cash Account, with money directly transferred from your Bank. On a Global Scale this literally gives you average extra 1.5% Profits saving from bypassing the Visa and MasterCard Network. Pushing your Net Profit Margin to 20%*, 8% increase in EPS.


* This is assuming everyone switches to subscription model. So it is more of a best case scenario.

 

[hagar]

There's more toys we're missing out on:

- Apple Watch with sapphire glass and stainless steel body (the "LTE" version), we only get the cheaper version unless we buy across the border (I bought my original in Germany, long before any of them was available out here). Sure: none of our backwards telcos support the LTE functionality, but I like my watch to be not scratched.
- Apple Homepod: not available at all, not even if you would be willing to have it only interact in English with siri.
- Apple News: not available at all, not even if you want to follow US news sources.
- ...

But it used to be far worse: at least we have an Apple store nowadays, we get new iPhone models the same year they get released etc. We can get built-to-order US keyboard layouts on our macs (used to be impossible many years ago), ...
So there is hope for the future that they will eventually catch up and do everything globally. But I'm afraid the politicians around the world will make that ever harder for any company, Apple included.

You forgot one of the most annoying forgotten features. Support for Quick Type en automatic language recognition for Dutch. I’m so fed up up with clicking the globe icon on iOS to switch between Dutch, French and English 10.000x a day when autocorrect thinks I’m writing another language.

 

[ksec]

- Apple News: not available at all, not even if you want to follow US news sources.

And my God this. Launched in 2015, three years later, 100s of Editor on Apple PayRoll, not a single dollar of extra revenue coming in. Ads ( Good Ones ) Coming in to help ? Nope. And still US only and not anywhere else Worldwide.

 

[truthertech]

October, 2014 was when Apple Pay first launch.

4 Years!. Apple needs to start thinking how to speed up some of their recent services execution world wide. I know it is better to be right than to be quick. But 4 years is a long time.

The delay is not on Apple's part. Apple has to get both the retailers and the banks who control the credit cards to agree to participate. Retailers who have the NFC readers are no problem in most countries, but some banks and credit card companies in some countries are reluctant to give up any control over the customer relationship, and of course allow any erosion into the fees they collect from the merchants. The three major banks in Australia have had a hold on consumers and have fought tooth and nail to stop Apple Pay.

Right now Apple only takes around .015%, or 15 cents on a hundred dollar transaction, which is more than made up by the near elimination of fraud with Apple Pay, but as Apple Pay grows, and banks also fear where this will end up should Apple issue its own credit card or raise fees.

 

[tmiw]

Right now Apple only takes around .015%, or 15 cents on a hundred dollar transaction, which is more than made up by the near elimination of fraud with Apple Pay, but as Apple Pay grows, and banks also fear where this will end up should Apple issue its own credit card or raise fees.

That's only in the US. Presumably Apple accepts a far smaller cut elsewhere.

 

[iGeek2014]

I'm a BNP Paribas Fortis customer in Belgium and have received in the past weeks communication from both the bank and from American Express that they are breaking up their collaboration starting April 30th, 2019.

Wonder if this is related to the bank getting on board with Apple Pay.

When the E.U capped interchange fees on credit and debit cards American Express were exempt until 2019/20; going forward you’ll only get a credit card from AmEx themselves rather than it being licensed to a third party.

The same is happening here over in the U.K, a lot of banks who had dual cards (e.g. Barclaycard) have switched their customers to just the one card, usually a MasterCard.

 

[RickDEGH]

And almost a month after Deutsche Bank in Germany announced the “Coming Soon” service nothing has happened. Each time I open their app there’s a big blue banner and nothing to show for it!

 

[Unami]

You forgot one of the most annoying forgotten features. Support for Quick Type en automatic language recognition for Dutch. I’m so fed up up with clicking the globe icon on iOS to switch between Dutch, French and English 10.000x a day when autocorrect thinks I’m writing another language.

Wow, I didn't know this was even an option. I really hate having autocorrect "correct" the English words that are just part of a modern day German conversation. Although it sometimes seems to work when typing strictly in English (well, right now, it works).

I also find it frustrating that we don't get Siri on the AppleTV.

 

[writevli]

Hmm, adult Belgians are required by law to carry their eID ...

You have itsME for that, also on the phone.

 

[Jeroen]

We can get built-to-order US keyboard layouts on our macs (used to be impossible many years ago), ...

I've had a couple of exchanges with Steve Jobs via email. (The way to best reach him was to clearly describe, and very briefly, an obvious problem or oversight from Apple.)

One was in early 2010 about the US qwerty keyboard situation. We could order MacBooks with US qwerty keyboards but no matching external ones... Which, and definitely if you're a good typist, is crazy.

Couple of days later I got a call from someone at Apple in Cupertino, asking me if the problem was resolved... I had already noticed so I said yes, thank you... Boom. External US qwerty keyboards in the Belgian online Apple Store.

 

[knzVZyxf]

there's plenty of chatter that it's starting in germany tomorrow too.... but there's been a lot of that kind of thing in the past few months

 

[Matam]

Some even still wait for Visual Voicemail @ Proximus (one of the main mobile operator ....). Still, always a good thing to have those technologies becoming widely available.

 

[Dougie Jones]

Now Dr Evil can use Pay when he goes visit his adoptive parents in Bruges

 

[jimthing]

+1
I hate carying a wallet with me, now just my phone should suffice!

Sorry to inform you, but if you think you'll never need to carry your bankcards with you anymore, you'll be sorely disappointed.

For starters, many places won't take it. Secondly, every few translations the banks will often decline the transaction, and you have to use your card+pin to make the purchase.
And finally, some places still only allow up to a certain maximum amount for contactless device usage (a complete pain in the backside, but most lift this needless limit eventually).

And Now it is time to get those Public Travel Cards ( Oyster cards in UK ) to be included inside Apple Pay, as well as all the other NFC, Felica / MiFare functions. Work with Banks to get rid of ATM Cards. ( Yes, Cash is still useful )

^this. It's so annoying that other non-bank cards have to be carried, when the technology is there to have things like Oyster available. Yet Apple has added Wallet to the "do later" list for improvements... like they seem to do for most of their software these days.

 

[Dougie Jones]

All the better to buy chocolate with.

Don't forget delicious belgian bier to wash that down.

 

[Doubleujay]

Hopefully The Netherlands will follow up soon!