As a U.S citizen I'm really looking forward to this - finally getting to see what Apple Pay can do on a 1st world banking infrastructure (meaning it will generally get support at most retailers on launch as opposed to retailers disabling support on launch like they did here in the U.S.).
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Banks in the U.K. Gearing Up for Apple Pay Launch as Santander Allows Customers to Register Cards
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For the last three weeks I have been in Europe - Iceland, England, Sweden and Norway. Apple pay has worked almost every time the reader had NFC, maybe 7 times out of 9. Almost to a man, the people manning the terminal were SHOCKED when it worked and often had no worldly idea that it was possible to pay in such a way (they are used to chip+pin). I would say though that 80% of all card readers did not support nfc, which I was very surprised at. You actually see nfc much more in the DC area than over here, and I've been in big cities the whole time. Just some data points.
you'd be surprised at how many people don't use NFC in the card and "prefer" to use chip and pin. I see it all the time in UK.
The decision hasn't been validated as terrible yet as it hasn't even launched in the UK. The UK is a different beast than the U.S. for the following reasons:
1) ApplePay in the US is unlimited. In the UK the limit is just £20. Hardly anything at all. What can you buy in the Apple Store for less than £20.
2) the US had no contactless. Apple Pay introduced a new convenient payment method. UK already has contactless and it's built into every Barclays debit and Barclaycard credit card. Faster than using ApplePay as no buttons to press. (Yes I do know that ApplePay is more secure)
To be fair the U.S. was rolling out contactless already and many people had contactless cards.
True, but the beauty of the OC to me is how disposable it is. So I can keep my debit card, my phone stashed away deep in a pocket whilst keeping the OC close to hand. They do make excellent back ups just in case I didn't top up the OC though!
Really? I'm sure I heard some Android phones supported NFC. Could be wrong. I don't live in America.
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I may be misinformed on this point. Am I fair in saying that the UKs adoption of contactless is significantly more prevalent than US then?
The point I was trying to make is that if Barclays were to support ApplePay then from a customer use case point of view the customer would actually have more steps to take to pay with their phone than the debit / credit card already in their pocket.
I am in the operations department of the large UK company I work for, just saw a briefing pack today with "Tuesday 14th July - Apple Pay go live". Think it must be true!
The UK has been much quicker to adopt the technology and I'm sure the average person is more likely to go to a store that supports NFC there, but I'm seeing more and more places supporting NFC in the U.S. too.
Anyway, a card in the pocket (maybe even in a wallet in the pocket) isn't much different than a phone in the pocket (or a watch on the wrist). Reach into your pocket with your thumb already on the home button, place phone near NFC terminal and boom. You're set. There's also the extra security, no limit (for updated terminals), and the best thing: the convenience of carrying fewer items. The more things we can make digital (music, books, credit cards, keys, and so on) the better for everyone.
You must switch your region to US as it hasn't yet launched in the UK
If you read the terms and conditions properly, there is actually no restriction if hardware and software are up to date.
Your phone detects the NFC terminal and your default card pops up on your screen. Place your thumb on the home button to authenticate and you're done.
Welcome to the club!
The Watch is even easier... double click the home button, and hold it near the terminal. If you want to change the card, swipe left/right.
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Before reading the comments here I switched region from UK->US, pulled out my CC's and scanned away.
Barclaycard Platinum. Nope, same old reject message.
First Direct Gold Visa & First Direct Debit card both brought up a "Terms & Conditions" page I've never seen before.
(First Direct is a division of HSBC)
When I accepted the Ts&Cs it then said "Card not Added" - "contact your card issuers"
Promising!
Barclaycard Platinum. Nope, same old reject message.
First Direct Gold Visa & First Direct Debit card both brought up a "Terms & Conditions" page I've never seen before.
(First Direct is a division of HSBC)
When I accepted the Ts&Cs it then said "Card not Added" - "contact your card issuers"
Promising!
I just tried this and got the same message as shortcrust above. I called the number and was given the option to press 1 for setting up Apple Pay. I then spoke to a service rep (at 10pm BST!) who said, first, that Apple Pay will not be activated until tomorrow, then he was corrected by a colleague to saying that it was not yet announced when it would be active, but should be later this month.
The service rep was totally baffled as to how I got as far as I did in trying to register my card for Apple pay.
The service rep was totally baffled as to how I got as far as I did in trying to register my card for Apple pay.
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This is baffling then seeing as I got all the way through verification Etc and have it working perfectly well. I'd suggest people keep trying but I wouldn't waste time calling helplines
I jumped from Barclays to first direct as soon as they announced a 50p/day arranged overdraft charge. I never used the overdraft but it stank of exploitation of the most hard up. If anyone's interested there's a fantastic article on how banks rely on sucking certain types of people into debt and fee spirals here: http://www.theguardian.com/money/2005/jul/16/creditcards.debt
Like estate agents and solicitors (all professions that insist on charging massive arbitrary fees because they can), all banks are nasty things, but I must admit the customer service at fd has been lovely... and they're supporting Apple Pay from day 1!
I've only added the card that was associated with my iTunes account, so just had to enter the 3 digit security code that's on the back. Once I'd done that I received a text message with a verification code which I entered and hey presto it added it and I got a text confirmation and email to say I'm ready to use apple pay. For my credit card it asked me to hold the card up and the app 'scanned' the numbers and text off it. Sadly it wasn't added as the issuer doesn't support it yet.