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Apple Pay Now Supports HSBC and First Direct in the UK

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MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Apple Pay today expanded its participating issuers list within the United Kingdom, adding support for both HSBC and First Direct customers. Both banks were announced as starting partners for the UK branch of Apple Pay, but were delayed until late July at the last minute.

uk-apple-pay.jpg

HSBC and First Direct join a list of UK Apple Pay partners that includes: American Express, MBNA, Nationwide, NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Santander and Ulster Bank. Still listed as coming soon are: Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Bank, M&S Bank and TSB. Although Barclays has confirmed "imminent" support for the contactless payment service, the bank has yet to be listed on Apple's Apple Pay UK site.

Along with the announcement of HSBC and First Direct support, customers using Apple Pay in the UK will also be able to start taking advantage of the service at both Five Guys restaurants and Wilko stores across the country. UK support of Apple Pay launched on July 14, and has been steadily expanding its roster of retail partners and financial institutions in the subsequent weeks.

Article Link: Apple Pay Now Supports HSBC and First Direct in the UK
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2015/07/28/apple-pay-hsbc-and-first-direct/
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NotAdvisable

macrumors regular
Nov 16, 2011
220
90
Perth, Australia
Honestly it's ridiculous Apple are rolling out Apple Pay to one country nearly every year. Australia has a much denser ratio of NFC enabled card readers than both the UK and USA, yet Apple haven't mentioned anything yet. Tired of waiting.
 
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bollman

bollman

macrumors 6502a
Sep 25, 2001
678
1,447
Lund, Sweden
I wonder if Apple pay ever will be a big thing in Europe. Here in Sweden we have had chip-based cards for years and nowadays a very good working system for payments between mobile phones of every kind (iOS, android and windows phone).
There are almost no nfc-enabled terminals and since terminals are operated by a few companies and not the banks or retailers themselves I see no reason for these card-terminal-companies to reduce their profit and offer Apple pay. At the same time, the cost for banks and retailers is low enough that They should have no interest in pursuing a course where they'll start using their own terminals and apple pay with them.
 
P

profets

macrumors 603
Mar 18, 2009
5,114
6,146
NotAdvisable said:
Honestly it's ridiculous Apple are rolling out Apple Pay to one country nearly every year. Australia has a much denser ratio of NFC enabled card readers than both the UK and USA, yet Apple haven't mentioned anything yet. Tired of waiting.
Click to expand...

Considering Apple Pay launched 9 months ago, I think it's difficult to describe it as 1 country per year, or what Apple wants to do 1 country per year. Anyway, in Canada we're in the same situation. We've been surrounded by tap to pay for many years, feels like it would be an easy rollout here too. If anything I'd guess that the banks are the major hold up, just from seeing how they adopt and adapt to new technology.
 
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R

RickInHouston

macrumors 65816
May 14, 2014
1,457
2,210
I just don't understand all this, "now accepted at..." rollout.

I have to upgrade my capture device by October 1 2015 (or something like that). I'm a small Texas dental office. I had a new merchant service court me, promise me lower percentage cost and provide me with the new compliant state of the art machines.

All was installed two weeks ago. I now accept apple pay and Google Wallet. No one asked me.

So what's the big deal?
 
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C

cambox

macrumors 6502
Jun 8, 2010
256
35
omnipresent
It's not very clever, by the time I find my phone, press my finger on the phone and get it to read correctly I would have been out of the shop if I just used my contactless card. No point!
 
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grahamtriggs

grahamtriggs

macrumors regular
Jul 31, 2003
169
86
I've tried at a number of retailers, some of which explicitly accept Apple Pay, and have yet to have a successful transaction.

Even if it hadn't been a total fail, getting my phone out and authorising with a thumb print is less convenient than getting the actual cards out.

Although I do quite like the notifications that I get when I spend on my cards not using Apple Pay.
 
GreyOS

GreyOS

macrumors 68040
Apr 12, 2012
3,355
1,682
Now it's here, I can tell those missing out it's not that exciting. And getting your phone out, double clicking home button, picking the right card, waiting for the print reader -- it's not much quicker than getting your wallet out and holding up the right card.
 
K

kyjaotkb

macrumors 6502a
Nov 20, 2009
937
883
London, UK
Pretty impressive here in London to now see an Apple logo:
- on the doors of my local Boots
- at the entrance of every Tube station, on a dedicated sign
- on the screen of the pinpad/contactless payment terminal at M&S

That's what these guys have to do in exchange for being featured on the Apple website (otherwise Apple pay is of course accepted at 99% of the UK's high street shops, since here contactless is everywhere).

Would be handy if TFL enabled monthly and annual travelcards to be loaded on the iPhone, but I guess it boils down to Apple having to open NFC to third party apps and services, and that's not likely to happen anytime soon...
 
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BvizioN

BvizioN

macrumors 603
Mar 16, 2012
5,701
4,819
Manchester, UK
bollman said:
I wonder if Apple pay ever will be a big thing in Europe. Here in Sweden we have had chip-based cards for years.
Click to expand...

Same thing in UK! But seriously you cant compare the 2 when it comes to security and safety. Cards do get lost or stolen, prone to fraudulent activities etc. Phone may get lost or stolen but it will need to have a live finger to successfully make a payment.
 
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akb

akb

macrumors regular
Feb 16, 2004
116
267
UK
NotAdvisable said:
Honestly it's ridiculous Apple are rolling out Apple Pay to one country nearly every year. Australia has a much denser ratio of NFC enabled card readers than both the UK and USA, yet Apple haven't mentioned anything yet. Tired of waiting.
Click to expand...
Australia has more NFC terminals per capita than the UK, but the UK has more than twice as many of them (something over 100,000 in Aus versus something over 200,000 in UK - 2014 stats, the only ones I found).

The raw numbers are what matter.

But it'll get down there soon - I'm sure Australia is pretty high on Apple's priority list. When it does, you can be as largely underwhelmed as I am by the whole thing.
 
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Keane16

Keane16

macrumors 6502a
Dec 8, 2007
810
671
grahamtriggs said:
I've tried at a number of retailers, some of which explicitly accept Apple Pay, and have yet to have a successful transaction.

Even if it hadn't been a total fail, getting my phone out and authorising with a thumb print is less convenient than getting the actual cards out.

Although I do quite like the notifications that I get when I spend on my cards not using Apple Pay.
Click to expand...

Been pretty flawless for me in Manchester, Leeds and London.

If it's not worked at all for you maybe there's a handset problem? Read a comment on here about maybe the NFC functionality may not be working? Worth investigating, possibly get a shiny new handset out of it.

Now I use it, it's way better than pulling out cards for me. Plus more secure. Similar to when TouchID launched on the iPhone using my iPad without wasn't as slick. Small efficiency improvements, big UX improvement.

Oh and it's the feature that pushed me into getting an Apple Watch (was trying to hold out for Gen 2).
 
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Rogifan

Rogifan

macrumors Penryn
Nov 14, 2011
24,124
31,156
cambox said:
It's not very clever, by the time I find my phone, press my finger on the phone and get it to read correctly I would have been out of the shop if I just used my contactless card. No point!
Click to expand...
You must not have used Pay. Super simple. Super fast. I would never go back and hate that more retailers don't support it here in the U.S. (yes I'm looking at you Target and Walmart).
 
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