Apple Pay Expected to Launch in Czech Republic and Slovakia in Late February to Early March

[MacRumors]

Apple Pay will launch in the Czech Republic and Slovakia in late February to early March, according to Seznam Zprávy and ?ivé.

Czech Republic's two largest banks ?eská spo?itelna and Komer?ní banka, along with mBank, MONETA, and Air Bank, will reportedly be among the first financial institutions to offer Apple Pay to customers in the Czech Republic. Equa Bank and Banka CREDITAS may follow suit within the first half of the year.

Apple Pay has been gradually expanding across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The service launched in Belgium and Kazakhstan in November, made its long-awaited debut in Germany last month, and is "coming soon" in Saudi Arabia.

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

(Thanks, Peter Dräxler and Lee Richards!)

Article Link: Apple Pay Expected to Launch in Czech Republic and Slovakia in Late February to Early March

 

[Mac-lover3]

While the roll-out certainly isn't quick Apple Pay is certainly one of my favourite features on my iPhone.

 

[Mizu7]

Does anyone know if they will launch Apple Pay Cash too? Is it available in other countries or only in US? It could be very nice to send money using iMessage.

 

[cristianvaldez]

What about Chile?? They already have the infrastructure!!

 

[jimothyGator]

I was in Czech Republic about three years ago, and I used Apple Pay (with a US bank account) almost every where. NFC payments were accepted widely, and while virtually everyone was surprised my iPhone worked, I had no problems.

(Well, that’s not entirely true. One restaurant manager thought we were trying to cheat him or something, but most merchants were cool about it and impressed it worked).

 

[laszlo182]

Omg finally! We are more than ready in Slovakia! I’ve been using boon for several months now and every single terminal accepts it.

 

[kuryack]

Let's see which banks would be in the 1st wave. For others there is still .Boon (via Ireland app store), which works like a charm.

 

[Robert.Walter]

Poor Austria... seems it’s former colonies, and neighbors, will get Apple Pay before Vienna does.

 

[tonyduffe]

Does anyone know if they will launch Apple Pay Cash too? Is it available in other countries or only in US? It could be very nice to send money using iMessage.

This feature has not rolled out internationally anywhere as of yet.

Due to most financial products needing to be licensed in pretty much all countries Apple would need to seek that licensing and abide by any regulation in the countries they choose to roll it out in or partner with a bank or financial institution in that country that abide by the laws and is licensed correctly.

The only country the product is currently available in is the US and Apple chose to partner with Green Dot Bank.

 

[DaveFlash]

Of course it already works in those countries as it does across most (if not all) of Europe, as CDCVM*-certification for NFC-equipped terminals has all but been mandatory by banks, payment networks and terminal providers for years! It's a shame that it's still down to the individual banks to support it with Apple, we in the Netherlands have been and still are waiting for ages for the banks to finally get off their comfy sofas and start implementing this, as NFC is pretty ubiquitous here. luckily i'm with bunq ( https://www.bunq.com ), and they have a little ruse of a workaround to get Apple Pay working, and it does, which is brilliant. So much better than paying using wasteful, environment unfriendly plastic ;_)


*CDCVM = Consumer Device Card-holder Verification Method, terminals that support this method, which is used by Apple Pay to secure the transactions, know you're paying with a device and you verify your card holder status not with a pin-code but on-device with for example, biometrics or another way (such as the passcode when putting on Apple Watch).

 

[iGeek2014]

This feature has not rolled out internationally anywhere as of yet.

Due to most financial products needing to be licensed in pretty much all countries Apple would need to seek that licensing and abide by any regulation in the countries they choose to roll it out in or partner with a bank or financial institution in that country that abide by the laws and is licensed correctly.

The only country the product is currently available in is the US and Apple chose to partner with Green Dot Bank.

If/when Apple Pay Cash comes to the UK and possibly other European countries I suspect they’ll partner with Wirecard whom I believe own .Boon, which, as several posters will verify, works with Apple Pay.

 

[555gallardo]

Mobile payments were one of several reasons I switched from iOS to Android a few years ago. Other features included wireless charging, better camera, actually innovative design (S7 edge), longer battery life and larger base storage (w/ expansion slot). And it retains the 3,5mm jack.

Seems like iPhone is finally filling up my personal requirements.

 

[dannystyle]

Huh