Apple Pay Officially Launches in Austria

[MacRumors]

Apple Pay officially launched in Austria this morning. Apple's mobile payment system is now supported by the country's largest bank Erste Bank und Sparkasse, as well as German-based mobile bank N26, allowing customers to add bank cards to their digital wallet.

Apple says additional Apple Pay partners "coming soon" to Austria will include Bank Austria, Boon, Edenred, Revolut and VIMPay.

Last month, both Erste Bank und Sparkasse and N26 banks announced that Apple Pay was coming to Austria, with support for Maestro, Mastercard, and Visa debit and credit cards.

Apple Pay first launched in the United States in October 2014 and is also available in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, France, Japan, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Russia, New Zealand, Brazil, Poland, Ireland, Ukraine, and the United Arab Emirates.

Apple CEO Tim Cook last month said Apple Pay will be available in more than 40 countries and regions by the end of 2019.

Article Link: Apple Pay Officially Launches in Austria

 

[Arni99]

Finally! Already used it this morning with my Apple Watch and it worked flawlessly.

 

[jdmachogg]

It's also available in Germany.

Your editing is getting sloppy eh

 

[Zeca]

It's also available in Germany.

Your editing is getting sloppy eh

36 countries as per apple site; plus Austria today!

I guess smaller countries does not count for macrumors!

 

[kloib]

I am curious to see if Raiffeisen will be joining the Apple Pay crew here in Austria. They support it in all other countries that they operate

 

[iPhysicist]

Des is weiland!

 

[2181 others]

*keeps waving in Dutch*

 

[NBAasDOGG]

Apple please, when do we get it in South Sudan? We are far more advanced than the Netherlands...

 

[Rub3n NL]

Apple please, when do we get it in South Sudan? We are far more advanced than the Netherlands...

It has nothing to do with ‘advanced’. Finance is the problem.
Financial infrastructure in the netherlands is very cheap. And Apple... well Apple doesn’t do cheap...

 

[sh65746153]

what is „bankcard“ standing for? is that a stand alone card like the Sparkasse „girocard“ in Germany? thanks

would be interesting because girocard is still not support in Germany, but a lot of people using bank accounts of their local Sparkasse.

Sparkasse = very trustworthy bank, that is strictly regulated by law and often the local politics

 

[TobiWahn_Kenobi]

I love it!!!

 

[RomanEmpire]

what is „bankcard“ standing for? is that a stand alone card like the Sparkasse „girocard“ in Germany? thanks

would be interesting because girocard is still not support in Germany, but a lot of people using bank accounts of their local Sparkasse.

Sparkasse = very trustworthy bank, that is strictly regulated by law and often the local politics

Bankcard is just their word for their DebitCard

BTT: finally - took only ages to arrive.
Now give us LTE for Apple Watch ;-)

 

[Starflyer]

Obligatory photo post.

 

[verpeiler]

I am curious to see if Raiffeisen will be joining the Apple Pay crew here in Austria. They support it in all other countries that they operate

Not in Germany.

 

[skipper63]

36 countries as per apple site; plus Austria today!

I guess smaller countries does not count for macrumors!

When it comes to the population, which I guess is the interesting figure for Apple Pay, there are at least 16 countries listed here, that are much smaller than Germany.

 

[twolf2919]

I've wondered this before: is "Now available in XXX" (fill in your own country for XXX) just an advertising device to indicate that there's now a local bank that has a deal with Apple? I mean, did Apple Pay (and Google's solution) not work in country XXX at all the day before? The contactless terminals obviously were in place before? In the US, I think individual merchants had to decide to turn off acceptance of ApplePay - before they did, paying with ApplePay was actually possible (e.g. the infamous act by CVS shortly after ApplePay became a thing).

Similarly, we see announcements that ApplePay is coming to various transit systems - do they really mean ApplePay specifically or any contactless phone-based payment method (such as Google Pay)?

I ask because I'm curious, but also why we never hear announcements about Google Pay "Now available in XXX".

 

[MisterSavage]

I've wondered this before: is "Now available in XXX" (fill in your own country for XXX) just an advertising device to indicate that there's now a local bank that has a deal with Apple? I mean, did Apple Pay (and Google's solution) not work in country XXX at all the day before? The contactless terminals obviously were in place before? In the US, I think individual merchants had to decide to turn off acceptance of ApplePay - before they did, paying with ApplePay was actually possible (e.g. the infamous act by CVS shortly after ApplePay became a thing).

This confused the heck out of me initially when I saw people complaining that Apple Pay wasn't available in the Netherlands when I used it there to pay without issue. But I was a tourist from the USA who didn't sign up for it there.

 

[justperry]

*keeps waving in Dutch*

Good!

It has nothing to do with ‘advanced’. Finance is the problem.
Financial infrastructure in the netherlands is very cheap. And Apple... well Apple doesn’t do cheap...

I say this over and over again, Apple Pay does not bring anything substantial to The Netherlands, The Netherlands has one of the best systems in the world, there’s little to add, I am as fast if not faster paying with my card and we won’t have to worry too much about security, the banks pay if our cards get compromised.
In the states on the other hand...
(Used to be crap)

 

[kloib]

Not in Germany.

Edit: In Poland and Russia. Still curious to see what their stance is

 

[Rub3n NL]

[doublepost=1556120442][/doublepost]

I say this over and over again, Apple Pay does not bring anything substantial to The Netherlands, The Netherlands has one of the best systems in the world, there’s little to add, I am as fast if not faster paying with my card and we won’t have to worry too much about security, the banks pay if our cards get compromised.
In the states on the other hand...
(Used to be crap)

I totally agree. Dutch banks would offer Apple Pay as another contactless service though, if Apple wasn't charging for each transaction.

 

[DeltaSVO]

This confuses me a bit. Does this mean that only cards from this bank are allowed to be used with Apple Pay throughout Austria? Doesn't the terminal accept contactless regardless of country?

If I have a ton of my USA-based credit cards linked to my Apple Pay account, could I use those throughout Austria at any POS terminal that has the )))) symbol?

Thanks!

 

[twolf2919]

[doublepost=1556120442][/doublepost]

I totally agree. Dutch banks would offer Apple Pay as another contactless service though, if Apple wasn't charging for each transaction.

While it is true that you don't have to worry much about paying for fraudulent charges - this is also true in the US where, granted, it's more likely due to the still ubiquity of mag-stripe cards - it is an additional hassle to contest charges. But, more importantly, it is a huge cost for the bank. Yes, ApplePay charges something like a 0.125% transaction fee that comes out of the bank's ~2% that comes out of the ~3% the merchant gets charged, it should be a no-brainer for the bank to support ApplePay as it pretty much completely eliminates unauthorized charges.

 

[TheAustrianGuy]

At last. Finally.

And I already got used to it within a single day. More than convenient.

 

[Romeo_Nightfall]

Thats a real great thing, where Apple should put most attention. They could wipe out the entire banking industry if they wanted too

 

[GroningenNL]

*keeps waving in Dutch*

And still keeps on waving....
[doublepost=1556218414][/doublepost]

I say this over and over again, Apple Pay does not bring anything substantial to The Netherlands, The Netherlands has one of the best systems in the world, there’s little to add, I am as fast if not faster paying with my card and we won’t have to worry too much about security, the banks pay if our cards get compromised.
In the states on the other hand...
(Used to be crap)

looking at how many people are opened an Italian Binq account so they can use Apple Pay in the Netherlands, there is anything substantial to bring to the Netherlands.

According to Rabobank a bank from the Netherlands it's all about the costs and Apple want too much.

https://www.iculture.nl/nieuws/rabobank-apple-pay-duur-veeleisend/