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jannette

macrumors 6502
Oct 13, 2011
254
61
Bishop's Stortford
Question, what about us from the States traveling in Europe with apple pay right now. Will it work on contactless terminals? I will be traveling that way next week and was wondering if its even worth it to try?
Yes, it works. I am English and in the UK but have a Bank of America card. I have scanned it into my iPhone and I can use it contactless. I had to fool my iPhone into thinking I am in the U.S. by changing the country to US in settings and I now have Apple Pay on my iPhone. This allowed me to scan US cards. UK ones will not scan until Apple Pay is introduced here. But I can use it contactless with no problem up to £20
 

jonfarr

macrumors 6502a
Jun 29, 2012
716
136
Portland
Good to know. I will be going to a few different places such as the UAE, Italy, France and Spain. So not the UK. Have a layover in Amsterdam. Ill see if I can use it while in any of these places.
 

jannette

macrumors 6502
Oct 13, 2011
254
61
Bishop's Stortford
Good to know. I will be going to a few different places such as the UAE, Italy, France and Spain. So not the UK. Have a layover in Amsterdam. Ill see if I can use it while in any of these places.
Yes, I am sure it will work! As long as they have contactless terminals, all will be good
 

fischersd

macrumors 603
Oct 23, 2014
5,366
1,936
Port Moody, BC, Canada
Good to know. I will be going to a few different places such as the UAE, Italy, France and Spain. So not the UK. Have a layover in Amsterdam. Ill see if I can use it while in any of these places.

Yep, any tap to pay / NFC terminals should work. At lease one Canadian on here got a US credit card so they could use Apple Pay up here now.
 

Futhark

macrumors 65816
Jun 12, 2011
1,237
175
Northern Ireland
I got to use Apple Pay twice yesterday in shops but with issues on the second occasion. First time was in McDonalds for a total of £13 and worked brilliantly, the second use was to access the Marble Arch Caves and it was £20 admission for a family. I used my watch but then terminal ended up declining the transaction. We tried it twice and the same result both times but the card worked when we used chip and pin. I thought £20 transactions were allowed or is it anything below £20 or is it a max of £20 a day? Don't want to make the same mistake again
 

Neo1975

macrumors 6502
May 11, 2015
307
83
I got to use Apple Pay twice yesterday in shops but with issues on the second occasion. First time was in McDonalds for a total of £13 and worked brilliantly, the second use was to access the Marble Arch Caves and it was £20 admission for a family. I used my watch but then terminal ended up declining the transaction. We tried it twice and the same result both times but the card worked when we used chip and pin. I thought £20 transactions were allowed or is it anything below £20 or is it a max of £20 a day? Don't want to make the same mistake again

Anything £20 and below, although it is going up to £30 next month.

I have used it for multiple payments over a day. Maybe an old payment machine ?
 

Futhark

macrumors 65816
Jun 12, 2011
1,237
175
Northern Ireland
Anything £20 and below, although it is going up to £30 next month.

I have used it for multiple payments over a day. Maybe an old payment machine ?

Yeah that's what I thought and why I tried it. The staff were going wow how cool is this, then I looked a fool when the machine declined it hahaha
 

justjax

macrumors regular
Nov 15, 2011
131
11
Yeah that's what I thought and why I tried it. The staff were going wow how cool is this, then I looked a fool when the machine declined it hahaha
I had the exact same thing. I was in H&M last Thu and bought two items that came to about £19 and I tried it, terminal said authorizing or something like that and then spat out a receipt that said declined which is the exact same thing that happened to me about a week earlier at Tortilla (restaurant) with a purchase of around £8. Its annoying (and embarrassing), would love to know why its happening?
 

Futhark

macrumors 65816
Jun 12, 2011
1,237
175
Northern Ireland
I had the exact same thing. I was in H&M last Thu and bought two items that came to about £19 and I tried it, terminal said authorizing or something like that and then spat out a receipt that said declined which is the exact same thing that happened to me about a week earlier at Tortilla (restaurant) with a purchase of around £8. Its annoying (and embarrassing), would love to know why its happening?

Yeah that's the exact same process as me. Looked liked it had worked and then a receipt came printed out of the machine. Don't think declined was the word but all I know is I had to use my card in the machine. The exact same card that I was using contactless but worked with chip and pin. Just a little nervous using now in case it happens again.
 

jannette

macrumors 6502
Oct 13, 2011
254
61
Bishop's Stortford
Yeah that's the exact same process as me. Looked liked it had worked and then a receipt came printed out of the machine. Don't think declined was the word but all I know is I had to use my card in the machine. The exact same card that I was using contactless but worked with chip and pin. Just a little nervous using now in case it happens again.
I have had this happen too in Waitrose and Lidl. I asked to try again and it worked. I have also found that I had a tendency to swip my watch rather than hold it still. I think it is still a bit hit and miss.
 

Aniseedvan

macrumors 65816
May 14, 2012
1,251
402
UK
I had a 'look like a spanner' moment in a city centre post office at the self service till. Just bought some stamps, hit the 'pay with debit card' and then stood there like a lemon with my watch over the contactless reader... Given I've paid for stuff in my village post office with no bother, they either haven't enabled contactless on these self service terminals (I tried my card as well before resorting to chip & pin) or the counter staff are pressing a different button to enable contactless that can't be currently done at the self service terminals...
 

Futhark

macrumors 65816
Jun 12, 2011
1,237
175
Northern Ireland
I have had this happen too in Waitrose and Lidl. I asked to try again and it worked. I have also found that I had a tendency to swip my watch rather than hold it still. I think it is still a bit hit and miss.

My watch buzzed to let me know it had completed the process and that's when the machine printed the declined message. I asked her to try again and she was happy to and it was the same result.

The thing I found embarrassing is I'm actually paying with the same card that was declined but the staff and people in the queue didn't know that
 

Recognition

macrumors 6502a
Jun 27, 2013
596
673
My watch was declined again at Pret this morning despite them having signs saying they now accept Apple Pay.
This was at Waterloo train station in London.
The watch works with no problems at Costa, Whsmith and the ticket barriers all at Waterloo so I can only assume that Pret has dodgy contactless terminals!
 

Aniseedvan

macrumors 65816
May 14, 2012
1,251
402
UK
My watch was declined again at Pret this morning despite them having signs saying they now accept Apple Pay.
This was at Waterloo train station in London.
The watch works with no problems at Costa, Whsmith and the ticket barriers all at Waterloo so I can only assume that Pret has dodgy contactless terminals!
Costa's been the one place I've had an issue; used mine in Pret last week (albeit not in London). It would be nice to understand why, given once a few more shops have it, it would be nice to leave the cards at home..
 

Recognition

macrumors 6502a
Jun 27, 2013
596
673
Costa's been the one place I've had an issue; used mine in Pret last week (albeit not in London). It would be nice to understand why, given once a few more shops have it, it would be nice to leave the cards at home..
Yea, I'm not totally confident leaving my cards at home just yet.
I know which shops have worked without issue everytime, so I'm confident going to those, it's just the unknown shops, it feels like a bit of a gamble still!
 

Neo1975

macrumors 6502
May 11, 2015
307
83
Used my watch quite a few times and never not worked. If the watch is essentially replicating a contactless card I can't understand why it sometimes fails.
 

jannette

macrumors 6502
Oct 13, 2011
254
61
Bishop's Stortford
Used my watch quite a few times and never not worked. If the watch is essentially replicating a contactless card I can't understand why it sometimes fails.

I have used mine and had a tick appear on the watch face but in fact it has not worked and no receipt comes out of the till. It usually works on the second attempt. Not sure why this happens but it is annoying!
 

Defender2010

Cancelled
Jun 6, 2010
3,131
1,097
I got to use Apple Pay twice yesterday in shops but with issues on the second occasion. First time was in McDonalds for a total of £13 and worked brilliantly, the second use was to access the Marble Arch Caves and it was £20 admission for a family. I used my watch but then terminal ended up declining the transaction. We tried it twice and the same result both times but the card worked when we used chip and pin. I thought £20 transactions were allowed or is it anything below £20 or is it a max of £20 a day? Don't want to make the same mistake again
Apple Watch in Fermanagh- who knew!
 

BaggieBoy

macrumors 6502a
May 29, 2012
652
348
UK
Apple Pay via the watch refused to do anything on Sunday at Costa, but the phone worked fine.
 

Seamaster

macrumors 65816
Feb 24, 2003
1,135
207
I agree, it's not consistent enough to leave your wallet at home.

I'd say I've had an 80% success rate.

The worst aspect of this is when the watch (or the phone) gives an indication that the payment has worked, but the retailer disagrees. This has happened to me twice — once using the watch (M&S) and once using the phone (McDonalds). Both parties have to have as much confidence as we currently have in cards or we'll decide to stick with what works.
 
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