Apple Pay Support Begins Rolling Out for Select Banks in South Africa

[MacRumors]

In January, MacRumors reported that Apple Pay was likely to launch in South Africa sometime this year. As expected, Apple Pay has now started to go live in the country for customers of a select number of banks.

MacRumors readers and bank customers on Twitter report seeing prompts to add their cards to Apple Pay. So far, it seems that only Discovery, Nedbank, and Absa customers are able to add their cards to Apple's Wallet app.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1376756715455193092

https://twitter.com/x/status/1376765730763464706

To add a card to Apple Pay, customers should open the Wallet app, tap the plus button, and follow the on-screen instructions. It's important to note that banks must first add support for Apple Pay. Attempting to add an unsupported bank card will result in a pop-up reading, "Your issuer does not yet offer support for this card."

Apple's South African website hasn't yet been updated to reflect Apple Pay's rollout in the country, which isn't unusual, as rollout seems to have just begun in the past few hours.

Apple first launched Apple Pay in 2014 in the United States, and in the years since, it's slowly expanded to more countries around the world. Last month, Apple Pay officially launched in Mexico.

(Thanks Grant, Pieter, and Ludolph!)

Article Link: Apple Pay Support Begins Rolling Out for Select Banks in South Africa

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Nice to see the global expansion.

 

[mccdyl001]

Surprising to see that two of South Africa's larger banks, FNB and Standard Bank, are not on board from day one. They like to tout that they're modern and in with the times, but it looks like they were caught napping at the wheel. Nice to see 1st world technology finally arriving on our shores (even if it took 6+ years to get here!)

 

[Separo]

Can confirm works with Nedbank cards 🎉

 

[macsareveryinteresting]

Nice to see the global expansion.

In about 4-6 years, Apple Pay will be accepted around the globs. And in about 6-10 years, Apple Pay may be accepted at every store besides the ones that do membership.

 

[macsareveryinteresting]

Surprising to see that two of South Africa's larger banks, FNB and Standard Bank, are not on board from day one. They like to tout that they're modern and in with the times, but it looks like they were caught napping at the wheel. Nice to see 1st world technology finally arriving on our shores (even if it took 6+ years to get here!)

They’re always going to do the biggest and most popular places first.

 

[DeepIn2U]

Surprising to see that two of South Africa's larger banks, FNB and Standard Bank, are not on board from day one. They like to tout that they're modern and in with the times, but it looks like they were caught napping at the wheel. Nice to see 1st world technology finally arriving on our shores (even if it took 6+ years to get here!)

Great to see Apple Pay coming to S. African's! In time I'm sure the big too banks will be on-board. Banks are slow for implementation for any technology - but they'll be extremely vigorous in testing an ensure transactions are secure and path of support when they're perceived not secure or should anything wrong occur. Grant them that at least.

 

[lartola]

And in about 6-10 years, Apple Pay may be accepted at every store besides the ones that do membership.

Actually there is no such thing as stores doing membership with Apple. Every store that takes NFC contactless payment around the world already accepts apple pay (i.e, any store that accepts payment by tapping a card can already take Apple Pay too), even those located in countries where Apple Pay itself hasn’t been officially rolled out (they have actually been able to take it from day one when it first came out in the US in 2014).

Apple does not talk to merchants directly, they only talk to banks. Merchants don’t need to sign up for any membership with Apple in order to accept Apple Pay, nor do they pay any fees directly to Apple for accepting Apple Pay. Thus, the only stores around the world pending to accept Apple Pay are those that don’t support any contactless payment at all (i.e. stores that only allow payment by inserting or swiping a card, such as Walmart or Home Depot in the US). And there really aren’t that many of those arojnd the world anymore.

 

[davidventer]

Sad that FNB is not supported from day one so I just opened a Discovery Bank account. Been waiting for Apple Pay for a long time. No more carrying wallets and cards around. This is great!

 

[bn-7bc]

Surprising to see that two of South Africa's larger banks, FNB and Standard Bank, are not on board from day one. They like to tout that they're modern and in with the times, but it looks like they were caught napping at the wheel. Nice to see 1st world technology finally arriving on our shores (even if it took 6+ years to get here!)

Are they pushing their own soloution by any chance?

 

[davidventer]

Are they pushing their own soloution by any chance?

I’m not sure about Standard Bank but FNB has “FNB Pay” but it requires opening the app, logging in, browsing to the FNB Pay function, scanning a QR code, and selecting an account to pay from. Quite a mission, not ideal when you’re in a hurry. Also, only the latest FNB card terminals have the functionality to display the QR code and retail staff don’t even know about it. Then there’s also the issue that the majority of retailers don’t have that specific FNB card terminal that can display the FNB Pay QR codes. Most offer contactless payment so Apple Pay is desperately needed.

 

[davidventer]

In about 4-6 years, Apple Pay will be accepted around the globs. And in about 6-10 years, Apple Pay may be accepted at every store besides the ones that do membership.

It’s already accepted around the globe. You can literally use it anywhere contactless / tap to pay / NFC terminals are used. The hold up is the fact that not all bank cards can be used through Apple Pay yet. But if you have an Apple Pay compatible card, you can use Apple Pay anywhere where contactless payment is accepted, even in countries where linking a local bank card to Apple Pay isn’t possible.

 

[lartola]

It’s already accepted around the globe. You can literally use it anywhere contactless / tap to pay / NFC terminals are used. The hold up is the fact that not all bank cards can be used through Apple Pay yet. But if you have an Apple Pay compatible card, you can use Apple Pay anywhere where contactless payment is accepted, even in countries where linking a local bank card to Apple Pay isn’t possible.

Exactly. Thanks to that, I used Apple Pay in Mexico for over four years before support for any local bank cards was introduced, which just happened last February.

This also proves that there is no such thing as “every store besides the ones that do membership”: merchants don’t have to sign any agreement with apple at all to accept apple pay at their physical stores. All they need, as mentioned before, is to accept contactless payments. Some merchants will display official apple pay logos at their stores and others won’t, but if they all take contactless payment they all can still accept apple pay regardless. Even merchants that accept contactless payment in countries where apple pay is otherwise unsupported can still accept Apple Pay.