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If I have to use a passcode, I may as well just always use my NFC card, and eliminate the will-it-work-or-not, but then I lose biometrics - which is why I was asking about Apple Watch in the first place.
But you may/will encounter purchase amount caps when using your nfc card. Using your iphone or apple watch, you can pay any amount using nfc just like by inserting your card.
 
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Given your intended use of the Apple Watch, consider wearing the watch racer style, that is, with the face against the inside of your wrist…

Doing so allows you to seemingly pass your hand over an NFC terminal and have your payment “magically” approved…

In actuality, you are just bringing your watch into close proximity of the terminal…

Using the watch racer style also can help to cut down on having to contort your arm into awkward positions…

Whichever solution you choose, good luck in finding one — or more — that suits you! 😊
 
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I never use Apple Pay on my iPhone. it’s so much better on my Apple Watch. You never have to take your phone out of your pocket, it’s really convenient.
 
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Apple Pay with Apple Watch during mandatory masking COVID-19 was fantastic for me. I always used my phone before, but switched to using my watch in 2020. Now I use them both, depending on which is more convenient.

As others have said, you can wear just your watch, not connected to WiFi or cellular, and pay just fine to any tap-to-pay terminal that supports Apple Pay.
 
Many people just don't have direct experience with disabilities or people with disabilities. They can't help but be ignorant of different life experiences. Holding that against them won't get you anywhere. Jumping to accusations of ablism just causes more friction, and I've found life goes smoother if I keep such accusations as a last resort, after other more gentle means of explaining and persuasion have failed.
I feel like OP's frustration levels only rose after people repeatedly tried to second guess their needs based on their own, very different, situation. I don't see any jumping the gun in terms of accusations going on here by OP. They gave all the information necessary in their initial post as to what they were hoping for, and got confirmation of a good solution right away.

I also don't see any ranting and railing, just politely pointing out of a behavior type that isn't particularly helpful.

Just my observation.
 
There is a new crazy thing called cards with “contact less”. It works even with sunglasses!
Heh, we've had those for well over a decade here in Canada, but Americans are just only getting used to "Chip & Pin" because they just loved their fraud and magnetic stripe only, When Apple Pay came out here in Canada it just worked instantly pretty much everywhere because we already had the NFC tap for several years before and most places had the terminals.
 
Heh, we've had those for well over a decade here in Canada, but Americans are just only getting used to "Chip & Pin" because they just loved their fraud and magnetic stripe only, When Apple Pay came out here in Canada it just worked instantly pretty much everywhere because we already had the NFC tap for several years before and most places had the terminals.

It was always funny going down to the US on vacation and then tapping my watch or card and they'd say "What did you just do?". :D Caught up now for the most part though.

By the same token - European rollout of early cellular data was far superior to North America. It all goes in waves I suppose.
 
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In most countries tapping with a physical card is only allowed up to a certain amount of money, whereas tapping with a phone (apple pay or google pay) has no limit other than your bank account balance or credit limit.

Yup, Australia is one of the huge early adopters of post-cash payment systems. I've used cash less than 5 times since 2017 when I bought my first iPhone SE and changed banks to one that was offering ApplePay. There's been talk of legislation to mandate that businesses in critical industries (supermarkets, grocery stores) be required to accept cash, because so many businesses (the Stripe reader really revolutionised market stalls) have gone card-only.

I don't even have my NFC card enabled for any type of purchase, but yeah for ApplePay there's a limit of... I think I put through something like $600 recently without needing to put in a PIN, but it also seems to vary depending on the vendor's NFC machine, and whether your payment is processed as a Credit, or Debit transaction (a lot of banks here run their debit cards through Visa's credit network).

The only thing the plastic card is necessary for is processing reimbursements at medical practices, because they can't do payments back to ApplePay when it's a Credit-Network debit card.
 
But you may/will encounter purchase amount caps when using your nfc card. Using your iphone or apple watch, you can pay any amount using nfc just like by inserting your card.

NFC cards here have a PIN-less limit of something like $200, and your financial institution usually has a daily account limit (irony being when you have to put something on a credit card via ApplePay, because the credit card has a higher daily limit than your Debit card via ApplePay). But as I mentioned earlier, the problem is that NFC cards have no protections against fraudulent use, if PIN-less is enabled.
 
Is that entering the passcode on the watch itself? And then it stays authenticated for that wear session?
One thing to note: the watch does not play well with tattoos so you will have to constantly input the passcode. I have a sleeve on my left arm that goes onto the back of my hand, so no open skin, which means the Apple Watch can't figure out that it's on my wrist. I have to wear it on my right wrist where thankfully the tattoos I have are either on the inside of the wrist or higher up the arm.
 
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One thing to note: the watch does not play well with tattoos so you will have to constantly input the passcode. I have a sleeve on my left arm that goes onto the back of my hand, so no open skin, which means the Apple Watch can't figure out that it's on my wrist. I have to wear it on my right wrist where thankfully the tattoos I have are either on the inside of the wrist or higher up the arm.

I'm guessing the sensor isn't actually biometrically identifying the skin itself - ie you could put the watch on someone else, authenticate it with your phone, and it would work with all the same functions, because what the sensor is monitoring is an unbroken chain of contact, not the actual unique structures in / beneath the skin?

Or does it do a blood vessel map or similar of the location you wear it?
 
One thing to note: the watch does not play well with tattoos so you will have to constantly input the passcode. I have a sleeve on my left arm that goes onto the back of my hand, so no open skin, which means the Apple Watch can't figure out that it's on my wrist. I have to wear it on my right wrist where thankfully the tattoos I have are either on the inside of the wrist or higher up the arm.

What? The watch doesn’t care about that at all. It doesn’t need skin contact, you can hold it against any surface. Many other features like heart rate do depend on skin.
 
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I don't know if people with the oh so clever "use a card" understand that NFC with a card is different in enough ways that are important, that it's not a substitute. Especially when it's a debit card that's exposing your bank account.

But I'm sure people have witty "hey 75% of a staircase is enough for the wheelchair ramp" bon mots as well.

Debit cards don’t expose your bank account, they expose the card number like all other cards. So does applepay, but in that case it’s a virtualized card, with a separate number.
 
I'm guessing the sensor isn't actually biometrically identifying the skin itself - ie you could put the watch on someone else, authenticate it with your phone, and it would work with all the same functions, because what the sensor is monitoring is an unbroken chain of contact, not the actual unique structures in / beneath the skin?
Correct. Your iPhone will not authenticate the Watch unless the iPhone is unlocked, and you get a pop-up on the iPhone saying it's authenticating the Watch with a button giving you the option to cancel the authentication. You can also turn off the setting entirely so that the only way to unlock the Watch is by inputting a passcode directly on the Watch itself.
 
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I'm guessing the sensor isn't actually biometrically identifying the skin itself - ie you could put the watch on someone else, authenticate it with your phone, and it would work with all the same functions, because what the sensor is monitoring is an unbroken chain of contact, not the actual unique structures in / beneath the skin?

Or does it do a blood vessel map or similar of the location you wear it?
It doesn't biometricaly identify a particular user. So if you put it on someone else's wrist and enter the passcode, or authenticate it with your phone, then they would be able to use ApplePay as if you were wearing the watch.

I think also if you are quick enough, you can take an unlocked watch off your wrist and transfer it to someone else's wrist without the watch locking and having to authenticate/unlock it again. However, it has to be really quick, and very unlikely to succeed unless both people are cooperating.

What? The watch doesn’t care about that at all. It doesn’t need skin contact, you can hold it against any surface. Many other features like heart rate do depend on skin.
The watch locks when it detects that it has lost skin contact.
 
Debit cards don’t expose your bank account, they expose the card number like all other cards. So does applepay, but in that case it’s a virtualized card, with a separate number.

Expose your bank account as in "someone with your NFC card can make purchases with your money with no requirement for a PIN".
 
NFC debit cards in Australia don't require PINs or any authentication. Someone has your card, they can rack up ~$2000/day in purchases, up to $200 per transaction. AND financial institutions have no obligation to reimburse for any of that which happens prior to your official notification of a stolen card and the stop being put upon it.

How is someone getting your card?

What did you do before Apple Pay and Touch ID?
 
Apple literally says on their site mask mode is not supported with sunglasses.

End. Of. Story.
Except that several people on this exact thread have already told you that they have used both a mask and sunglasses and it has authenticated just fine.
Again, actually try something before jumping to conclusions.
 
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How is someone getting your card?

I'm going to assume that's a disingenuous question, because Apple has an entire global infrastructure for geolocating things that are much larger, and harder to lose than a small plastic card, and therefore the idea of misplacing an ATM card is so astoundingly obvious, that no person capable of interacting with a web forum could be unable to make that leap themselves.

What did you do before Apple Pay and Touch ID?

Had a bank whose ATM cards din't offer NFC payment options.
 
Had a bank whose ATM cards din't offer NFC payment options.

oh well then I can solve your problem

just cut the wire inside the card and NFC is disabled. all you have to do is take a pair of scissors and snip a 5mm slit anywhere on the edge of the card and NFC won't work anymore
 
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The only thing the plastic card is necessary for is processing reimbursements at medical practices, because they can't do payments back to ApplePay when it's a Credit-Network debit card.
Assuming the system doesn’t require the number of the card used to refund to match the one used in the original purchase. Otherwise the refund won’t go through since apple pay and the plastic card have different numbers. Btw I’m surprised they can’t refund to apple pay: the procedure for refunds is usually the exact same as with the plastic card.
 
What? The watch doesn’t care about that at all. It doesn’t need skin contact, you can hold it against any surface. Many other features like heart rate do depend on skin.
But wrist detection can fail to work with tattoos on the wrist, with the watch locking up even while it’s still on the wrist because it fails to detect that it’s on there.
 
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