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Apple's Website Hints at Apple Pay Coming to Germany
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- I'm really confused by the choice of Germany, too. Their contactless infrastructure is nearly nonexistent, their POS terminals are ages old in most stores, and many don't even take Visa or MasterCard.Germany mostly uses cash
It seems inefficient to introduce Apple Pay there.
By that logic the US shouldn't have gotten it either, but here we are.
Also, there's still value in Apple Pay for buying stuff online in the worst-case.
- The US makes sense since it's Apple's home market. New services are always introduced there first.
But in the expansion it would make sense to choose markets with as well-developed infrastructure as possible, and in that sense Germany is a strange choice before, say, Italy or Scandinavia.
- Good to hear. Still quite a bit behind most other European countries, though.
Actually there were landing pages on the Spanish Amex website that have been removed after the launch of iOS 10Wouldn't it be great ...?
But why is Spain missing on the map? Spain was already announced one year ago at the conference call after earnings call last autumn.
Not needed here, you can use contactless pay almost anywhere here nowadays, why do we need ApplePay, another one which wants part of the pie.
That said, if ApplePay gets introduced here it would be widely accepted, that is, if banks cooperate.
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It's supported at my commissary on base. No one knew for a while I had to spread the news. They have the Apple Pay sticker outside but it's under others so it's kinda hard to notice. Been there since June/July. I've used it a few times to buy a few things.
ING has stated over and over again they'll cooperate, not sure what the hold up is. As you said contactless is widely available here.
The new site, which has not been activated yet, is from 10/19/2016. So, brand new!
http://www.apple.com/de/apple-pay/
This one has been updated 10/18/16: https://support.apple.com/de-de/HT204274
I think, the countdown is about to start, for Germany.
http://www.apple.com/de/apple-pay/
This one has been updated 10/18/16: https://support.apple.com/de-de/HT204274
I think, the countdown is about to start, for Germany.
Just used your link and inserted NL into it.
https://support.apple.com/nl-nl/HT204274
NL-NL....Makes me think... It's in English though.
English for the dutch is there 2. mothertongue, right?
[doublepost=1477076923][/doublepost]Tim said that this year would be the year of Apple Pay...
I had to look it up, as I'm an American, and can only speak one language. My favorite was brieftasche. Do people use that?
I am just using my credit card in Germany (Hamburg/Berlin) for over a year now. There are just a few places that do not accept cards (e.g. bakeries). 90% of the places that accept cards also do except credit cards and 80% of those places support NFC payments today. Yes Germans like cash, but things are changing rapidly in terms of infrastructure.
I reckon, compared to all of Denmark there might be more contactless POS terminals in Berlin alone. Not that anyone is using them until Apple Pay supports German debit cards issued by Sparkasse. If they require a credit card it's an instant failure.
Unfortunately, it works with every country... Doesn't mean anything imho.
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To be fair even Aldi and Lidl support contactless, and they have thousands of outlets, Apple Pay works great at Aldi Nord by the way, I used it many times there earlier this year. Both shops also allow credit card use.
- Yes, it's not generally a problem in the large cities, and they tend to be far ahead of the rest of the country. But Germany is larger than just Berlin and Hamburg.
It's been my experience from travelling to and through Germany over the years (including during my summer vacation this year) that it can be a real challenge to pay for things using a Visa card. Many larger chains do accept it, yes, but it's very very far from being a universal thing, and it's a genuine hindrance especially for foreigners who are used to never ever carrying cash.
As far as NFC, it's a whole other thing. I've had to hunt for it actively, only finding it at megastores such as Saturn. Forget about petrol stations, convenience stores, small hotels, and smaller food establishments.
Germany is a lovely country, and I've been there many times, but its payment infrastructure is absolutely out of the last century, and it is still the only country in Western and Southern Europe I've been to where paying with a Visa card is a challenge. It's great to hear that things are changing, though.
- Perhaps so. But it's not only - or even primarily - about the total number available. It's about market penetration. There may be several million NFC terminals in Berlin, but if that translates to only 1 in 5 stores it doesn't matter very much.
I'm not necessarily advocating Denmark as a better choice than Germany (although I would certainly like to see it introduced here in a serious hurry). But Germany is a worse choice than some other countries if the criteria are card and NFC payment penetration.