Apple Pay Launches in 13 More European Countries, Sparkassen and Volksbanken in Germany Later This Year

[lartola]

Europe as a continent is still missing some countries, but European Union is fully supported now.

Great. Time for Apple Pay to start rolling out to other regions of the world. They still have all of Africa and all of spanish speaking Latin America completely uncovered, and very few countries covered in Asia.
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So you go from waiting in line using your phone, which is fine, to completing and packing your purchase all without your phone ever leaving your hand?

I can see that working if you're just ordering a Starbucks or something but for actual shopping it seems inconvenient.

Apple watch would be much more convenient in that scenario (actual shopping). It’s on your wrist, so you double press the button to pay and then your hands are still free to pack and carry your purchased goods.
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Still no Apple Pay in Puerto Rico.

We got your back, Latvia, Russia, and the bulk of Europe.

But hey, even though the PR banking system is part of the US banking system.....

Same with Mexico. Apple went all the way to Europe, but didn’t start talking to any banks in Mexico, right next door, until 2018. Had they started negotiations with Mexican banks back in 2014, we might have apple pay by now. It seems Apple considers all of us spanish speakers to be uncivilized except maybe for the spaniards. And they seem to think the same about Africans, since not a single country there has apple pay either.

 

[SidricTheViking]

It is now.

Excellent. Thanks.

 

[davebarnes]

Andorra seems to be missing.

 

[lartola]

We have it here in Singapore

Still, very few countries in Asia have Apple Pay so Apple has a lot of work to do there. They also have lots of work to do in Africa and Hispanic America*, entire regions of the world where not a single country has Apple Pay.

*By Hispanic America I mean the spanish speaking countries in America (the continent), which obviously does NOT include Brazil where they speak portugese.

 

[samwa3]

Whats very important is that Apple Pay in Germany will support Direct Debit Cards (Lastschrift/Bankeinzug) and not just Debit Cards (which are basically Creditcards). This is huge because Credit Cards only make up for 5% (including Debit Cards) where Direct Debit Cards do account for 95% of all non-cash transactions.

ELV and a payment via the girocard network are not the same thing. Don't make this more confusing than it already is. 100% there won't be support for transmitting your bank account number via Apple Pay to the merchant. Much more likely that girocard will finally implement tokenization and we'll see Apple Pay integration after that. But without the stupid ELV.

(I love direct debits but I don't love giving every merchant my bank account information, I'd rather decide for myself when to use it.)

 

[mauriciomatos]

Revolut is issuing local BIN cards. So if you have your address in the Revolut app in Portugal, you will receive a card with a Portugal BIN (Bank Identification Number).

I understand that. I actually have a Revolut card. But I would like to use my main accounts with Portuguese banks. Sometimes is not that easy to move from one bank to another. And Revolut is not actually a bank just yet, as far as I know.

 

[e1me5]

Apple Pay comes to Cyprus? Hell yeah!!! Now I can show off at the bakery every morning!

 

[lartola]

Apple Pay comes to Cyprus? Hell yeah!!! Now I can show off at the bakery every morning!

Actually Apple Pay was already there. From day one, it was accepted by merchants in Cyprus and the other 12 countries where it’s officially rolling out today, but until yesterday people could only use it so long as it was set up with a foreign card. It couldn’t be set up with cards issued by some of the banks in those 13 countries, which is all that changes today. And it only changes partially, since many banks in each of those 13 countries still don’t allow their issued cards to be added to apple pay.

 

[lartola]

I understand that. I actually have a Revolut card. But I would like to use my main accounts with Portuguese banks. Sometimes is not that easy to move from one bank to another. And Revolut is not actually a bank just yet, as far as I know.

Monese and N26 are also currently listed besides Revolut as supporting Apple Pay in Portugal according to apple’s portuguese website. https://www.apple.com/pt/apple-pay/

 

[e1me5]

Actually Apple Pay was already there. From day one, it was accepted by merchants in Cyprus and the other 12 countries where it’s officially rolling out today, but until yesterday people could only use it so long as it was set up with a foreign card. It couldn’t be set up with cards issued by some of the banks in those 13 countries, which is all that changes today. And it only changes partially, since many banks in each of those 13 countries still don’t allow their issued cards to be added to apple pay.

I know my bank will support it. They actually pre-announced it in a clever way in a popular satirical site. The trick with the setting up Apple pay with foreign cards is well known, but for what it needs to be done to cheat the system, well it beats the purpose of Apple's simplicity.
Anyway, good news day, super excited. Now Apple give me turn by turn directions for Apple maps!

 

[rmoliv]

I understand that. I actually have a Revolut card. But I would like to use my main accounts with Portuguese banks. Sometimes is not that easy to move from one bank to another. And Revolut is not actually a bank just yet, as far as I know.

True but unfortunately I think it will take some time until major Portuguese banks (Millennium bcp, BPI, Novo Banco, Santander Totta) support Apple Pay because they are actually the "owners" of SIBS/MB/MB WAY and Apple Pay is their competitor so to speak. The day they realize that too many customers are opting for "fintechs" and closing their accounts they may rethink it. I for one won't use MB WAY anymore, even for transfers.

 

[hugobarbosa13]

To have it available is one thing, to have the banks offer the service is another thing. Here in Portugal, it seems to only be available to foreign cards for now, such as Revolut.

i have been using n26 as my main bank account here in portugal for a few months now, and it works great! I was using a spanish boon account to use apple pay, also without a problem. now i can finally have just one account!

 

[McTool]

Why announce it as going live in a certain country?
It’s ’live’ in Belgium but only with one bank.
So what’s the point calling it going ‘live’ in a certain country?

 

[MisterSavage]

So you go from waiting in line using your phone, which is fine, to completing and packing your purchase all without your phone ever leaving your hand?

I can see that working if you're just ordering a Starbucks or something but for actual shopping it seems inconvenient.

I'm in the US. Most places bag your items for you. Places like Aldi are an exception. If I had to bag myself I would pay with my watch if I had to do that first.

 

[lartola]

To have it available is one thing, to have the banks offer the service is another thing. Here in Portugal, it seems to only be available to foreign cards for now, such as Revolut.

Nope. N26 and Monese also support apple pay, and I believe at least one of those two does have a branch in Portugal.

Why announce it as going live in a certain country?
It’s ’live’ in Belgium but only with one bank.
So what’s the point calling it going ‘live’ in a certain country?

’Live’ just means people can now add cards from at least one bank in a given country where previously no banks at all supported apple pay, but that expression is usually used by tech blogs such as this one, not by Apple or the banks. And usually the banks are the ones who announce for their customers that they have started supporting apple pay. Apple doesn’t make much of a fuss about it, and sometimes they even remain silent like they did when Iceland got support for apple pay.

Nonetheless, I agree ‘apple pay goes live in...’ may be a confusing headline just like any headline saying that some US merchant is now rolling out support for apple pay. That one usually puzzles some European readers because they don’t know that in reality US merchants are just rolling out NFC contactless payment (a confusion which is partly apple’s fault too because they always talk about apple pay as if no other means of payment ever existed that uses NFC contactless technology).

 

[baryon]

Ever since we got Apple Pay a few weeks ago, I've been using it for every single physical purchase, I really like it. Thanks to Touch ID you don't have to enter a PIN, and you don't have to touch the device very close to the reader like you have to with bank cards, it works over a distance of a few cm. Also, since it's automatically accepted everywhere where you can pay by card, it made the rollout entirely universal and instantaneous. I thought that only some shops will support it and was pleasantly surprised that all shops support it with no exceptions. Basically it makes carrying around a bank card pointless, except of course for using an ATM.

 

[lartola]

Ever since we got Apple Pay a few weeks ago, I've been using it for every single physical purchase, I really like it. Thanks to Touch ID you don't have to enter a PIN, and you don't have to touch the device very close to the reader like you have to with bank cards, it works over a distance of a few cm. Also, since it's automatically accepted everywhere where you can pay by card, it made the rollout entirely universal and instantaneous. I thought that only some shops will support it and was pleasantly surprised that all shops support it with no exceptions. Basically it makes carrying around a bank card pointless, except of course for using an ATM.

Yeah apple pay doesn’t have to be specifically supported, that’s a misconception caused by the announcement every so often of businesses in the US rolling out support apple pay, businesses which in reality are simply enabling NFC contactless on their cash registers. Apple Pay basically uses NFC contactless just like the cards that europeans have tapped to pay for nearly a decade, so anywhere those cards are accepted so is apple pay. And that’s regardless of whether a country officially supports apple pay or not, meaning that in reality apple pay was already accepted everywhere in your country even before it officially arrived a few weeks ago. All that’s changed since your country got apple pay a few weeks ago is that now people in your country can configure apple pay on their iphone or apple watch with their locally issued bank cards, whereas before apple pay arrived only foreign visitors and a few people who may have had access to a foreign card could do that.


And, by the way, even for the ATM it will eventually be possible to use apple pay. It already is possible on some ATMs in the US that have NFC readers, though for now they only allow contactless cash withdrawal for cards issued by the same bank that owns the ATM (i.e., they don’t allow to use the ATM network with apple pay like they do with physical cards).

 

[Morgenland]

Apple Pay is officially going live in 13 additional countries today, including Greece, Portugal, Romania, and Slovakia, bringing Apple's mobile payment system to millions more users across Europe.

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In Slovakia, for example, users can already load cards onto their Apple Wallet from Boon, Edenred, J&T Banka, Monese, N26, Revolut, Slovenska sporitelna, Tatra banka, and mBank.

It's a similar story in many more countries, based on screenshots posted by Apple users on social media this morning.

Apple Pay now also appears to support a number of popular bank cards across Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, Romania, and Slovenia.

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Apple Pay has been gradually expanding across Europe and the Middle East, launching in Poland, Norway, Kazakhstan, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Saudi Arabia, Austria, and Iceland over the last year.

The mobile payment system allows iPhone 6, 6s, 6, 7, 8, 6 Plus, 6s Plus, 7 Plus, 8 Plus, SE, X, XS, XS Max, and XR users to make payments for goods and services in retail stores using an NFC chip built into their iPhones.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said in March that Apple Pay would be available in more than 40 countries and regions by the end of 2019, although Apple's website has yet to be updated with the full list. Apple Pay first launched in the United States in October 2014. You can view the full list of Apple Pay countries and regions on Apple's website.

Update: Sparkassen and Volksbanken banks in Germany will also support Apple Pay later this year. (Thanks, Kai!)

Article Link: Apple Pay Launches in 13 More European Countries, Sparkassen and Volksbanken in Germany Later This Year

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For a lot of people a good message. Therefore also the ethically outstanding GLS bank will be equipped with this...

The BVR (Die genossenschaftliche FinanzGruppe, to which we also belong as GLS Bank.) announced on 25 June 2019
"The Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken will offer their customers ApplePay in the course of 2019".
We are pleased that the conditions have been created for us to be able to offer Apple Pay to our customers as well.

https://www.gls.de/privatkunden/faq/onlinebanking-sicherheit/kann-ich-apple-pay-nutzen/

 

[otternonsense]

Up next, Apple Card in 2035 when cards will no longer be a thing

 

[Khedron]

Ever since we got Apple Pay a few weeks ago, I've been using it for every single physical purchase, I really like it. Thanks to Touch ID you don't have to enter a PIN, and you don't have to touch the device very close to the reader like you have to with bank cards, it works over a distance of a few cm. Also, since it's automatically accepted everywhere where you can pay by card, it made the rollout entirely universal and instantaneous. I thought that only some shops will support it and was pleasantly surprised that all shops support it with no exceptions. Basically it makes carrying around a bank card pointless, except of course for using an ATM.

Plus the problem with any consolidation of tech is the impact of a single failure; lose or break your phone or run out of battery and you've also lost access to your money, one problem is now two

 

[Galve2000]

Apple Pay on a watch is a convenience, but the scenario in the article photo is a joke. In what universe is holding your phone to a terminal easier than tapping a card.

When Apple make the Watch function without needing an iPhone it will be great.

if i already have my phone in my hand, it is much easier to tap the phone than to pull my wallet out of my pocket, pull the card out of the wallet and tap.

also... the wallet app on the apple watch has worked without the iphone since the very beginning. it is one of the things with the apple watch that apple did right from the get-go. whatever "chip" they are using for apple pay on their devices works using power power from the POS terminal, just like a regular contactless card.

 

[MisterSavage]

if i already have my phone in my hand, it is much easier to tap the phone than to pull my wallet out of my pocket, pull the card out of the wallet and tap.

Exactly! I just did it today while I was waiting in line for my lunch.

 

[IT Nerd]

Europe as a continent is still missing some countries, but European Union is fully supported now.

Well, people living outside the EU too. In Belarus, we're waiting for Apple Pay since the announcement from National bank of Republic of Belarus in 2017. But, Apple Rus LLC decided just refused to launch Apple Pay without reason. Anyway, some banks reported, that they are planning to launch service this year, so maybe we'll be lucky too.