Apple Pay is so useful. Numerous times I’ve forgotten my wallet used my phone instead. Saved my bacon on more than one occasion. Happy the Germans can experience this extra convenience.
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Apple Pay Launches in Germany
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Funny how Barclaycard tries to stall every single time Apple Pay is introduced somewhere...
The banks make money be ApplePay being secure. Your petrol station, or your grocery shop, cannot skim your card details and make purchases with your card that the bank ends up paying for.
Yes. I stopped using my Barclaycard 3 years ago when they dragged their heels in the UK. Changed to Nationwide Credit Card. Not used it since, even though they •eventually• started supporting Apple Pay.
With over 250 different banks in Germany not many are supported. I wonder how many bank customers in % can actually use it.
Even if you have accounts at 4 banks you might not be able to use it. And if those banks will be added, how will I know? If there were just a thing like a webpage or a form with a selection I could make and get a notification. But I guess we are still in the 90s and it will have to wait another 10 years.
Even if you have accounts at 4 banks you might not be able to use it. And if those banks will be added, how will I know? If there were just a thing like a webpage or a form with a selection I could make and get a notification. But I guess we are still in the 90s and it will have to wait another 10 years.
I think from that perspective: There are now different offerings from different banks and now it is up to the customer to decide what is the best fit for him/her - let's call it free market.
Would I switch banks to get Apple Pay support? Probably not (but what does "switch" mean, many bank accounts in Germany are free of charge).
Would I open an account with one of the banks that support it? For sure, but I am lucky enough to be a Comdirect and N26 customer and even my DKB account will eventually support it. I don't care if Sparkasse offers it, they have lost me as a customer 15 years ago, because of a ****** online banking experience...
Would I switch banks to get Apple Pay support? Probably not (but what does "switch" mean, many bank accounts in Germany are free of charge).
Would I open an account with one of the banks that support it? For sure, but I am lucky enough to be a Comdirect and N26 customer and even my DKB account will eventually support it. I don't care if Sparkasse offers it, they have lost me as a customer 15 years ago, because of a ****** online banking experience...
You can find the answer in this very thread, think it was the last page.
Here you go:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apple-pay-launches-in-germany.2159876/page-2#post-26899157
This is what he linked to, his own post, in French but I translated it for you:
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I should've put the "sarcastic" mark in my post.
I hate the pens they make us use to sign the screens.
Just get an American Express card. They are great. I love mine. If you want full coverage, I suggest getting an N26 account in addition to your existing account(s). Load it up with some disposable income monthly and use it to pay your monthly Amex invoice and all the MasterCard charges that you incur when Amex isn't accepted.
Yeah, I travel extensively throughout Europe and I've always been surprised how Germany, one of the "big players" has been so slow to widely embrace credit cards (that's not a criticism, just an observation). Everywhere else in Europe, I've always just assumed credit cards will be accepted without issue and that's invariably the case (apart from taxi drivers in Ireland!), but Germany I quickly learned not to expect it. I think that's maybe changed a bit in the last couple of years, but it's the one country I always make sure I've got cash with me, especially in the former East Germany cities where the take up seems to be even slower.
We still get to complain about no Apple Pay cash. Even though it says i can configure it, it then asks for an (american) social security number etc. German number contains at least 1 letter - so i cant enter it.
Seriously Apple - it took you 4 years to get this going and yet you couldnt even get this right!!!
End of complaining
Seriously Apple - it took you 4 years to get this going and yet you couldnt even get this right!!!
End of complaining
Part of it is historical, ie, just how things developed. Europe and Germany in particular simply developed debit card systems that at least nationally were almost universal (ie, one or two systems accepted everywhere) but also had wide acceptance Europe-wide, negating the need for credit cards for cashless payments. As almost every bank customer got a debit card included with their checking account (not least for use at ATMs), getting a credit card was almost always an additional cost that served little real benefit over the debit card.
Add to this a greater aversion to credit of any kind (compared to America and in particular in Germany) and credit cards had limited appeal to Germans. Most credit cards in Germany are also either balanced within days or at least at the end of the month automatically, there is therefore little of a 'credit function'. Even debit cards might feel like buying on credit compared to paying with cash where you always are fully aware of how much is left in your wallet.
Thus, with relatively few people having credit cards but almost all having debit cards, stores had much less incentive to also accept credit cards, in particular since they came with higher transaction fees. German retail, in particular in the grocery sector, is highly competitive, meaning stores try to cut costs wherever they could (for some, even the lower fees of debit cards were too much and a system of direct debit authorisations, "Lastschriftverfahren", has been used until very recently where the debit card only served to identify the customer).
Lastly, Germans are big on privacy and cash is the ultimate anonymous payment method.
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I am tempted to drop them but in the end there are not really a whole lot of businesses to pay at anyway so I will give them some more time. One of my banks will support it next year so I will be good.
Apple pay will really shine in Germany when you can pay at the locations where people usually only accept cash (such as bakeries) but I am not sure tht will ever be the case.
So does the issuing bank needs to be listed? I have VISA and Amex but my bank that issued those is not on the supported list yet.
Wife & I have been DB users for many years - sorry that your Bank wasn't listed, and that we don't count as "people" in your book!
I was being sarcastic
If there is not illegal collusion between banks to boycott Apple Pay (as is long suspected by some in Switzerland and now undervesigation by competition authorities there), then as reports trickle in about the uptake of Apple Pay in Germany, and as individual banks determine the rate ate which they are losing existing customers or not acquiring new customers, decisions will be made about adding Apple Pay to their customer offerings.
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Generally yes, but you can try to add the cards and see if you fail.
Ironic that Barclaycard partnered up with Apple here in the US to offer the Apple Rewards credit card, which works with Apple Pay.
- Yes, it is. Less secure, too.
- I'm fairly sure he ("NightFox") used "credit card" in the common (but technically incorrect) sense meaning any card used for payment, including debit cards and EC cards - especially as he contrasted credit card with cash and not with other forms of card payment.
Both credit and debit cards are poorly supported in Germany - especially contactless ones - from the point of view of a Brit or Scandinavian.