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Barclays Planning to Launch Apple Pay Support in UK in Early 2016
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In all fairness it was never marketing towards us by Apple. Unless you watch US commercials or watching WWDC keynote. It sucks that it's not rolling out any faster, but just because the phone is technically capable of something doesn't mean you're going to get to use it.
This phone has supported VoLTE since day 1 yet it gets no love from most carriers. Kind of the same thing.
About damn time. Seriously. Probably the best news I've read on this site. Wish they'd have actually announced it though or replied to one of my numerous twitter rants, jaja.
If you count Apple Stores in that, I have paid for my new iPhone with Apple Care+ with Apple Pay.
I can understand people moving their current accounts if they don't want to wait for Barclays to implement ApplePay but people changing their mortgages to make some kind of point - seriously!
Surely you choose your mortgage based on something other than whether that bank supports a payment mechanism in shops or not.
Surely you choose your mortgage based on something other than whether that bank supports a payment mechanism in shops or not.
Wonderful. Since the July 14th launch we've been told by Barclays, they had no plans, to 'hey we fired our CEO because of the backlash, imminent support on the way chaps' (To me imminent sounds like a couple days) but no it could be up to 9 months post stating imminent support? I'm really not sure how that works, once more I'm dumfounded how their US counterpart adopted it with open arms. To add insult to injury bPay is viewed by Barclays UK like corned beef or spam in the ration days. It's not the dogs b*******! the sheer audacity of denying customers a free service and giving them an intrusive, tacky, non-secure method in its stead is mind blowing, so if turns out that this whole delay was for bPay to have a chance then aren't they in danger of legal action?
Barclays didn't fire their CEO because of ApplePay backlash or anything to do with ApplePay at all.
Also I can't see how they would be liable for any form of legal action. Adopting ApplePay is a choice after all. There is no government mandate
Why not? It's obviously something they value highly in a bank account.
Very, very rough calculation: about 15% of eligible Apple Pay users in the US had tried the service as of June. In the UK, the iPhone has about 36% market share. If you assume 36% of Barclays' 12 million current account holders have iPhones, that's about 4.3 million customers. If you assume that 15% of those customers will be interested in trying Apple Pay, that's about 648,000 customers. And that's a very generous estimate, given that the market share figure includes devices that can’t use Apple Pay and people who won’t have bank accounts, e.g. kids. Also, only about 23% of those who’ve tried it before in the US were using it again in June when given the opportunity. Apply that to the hypothetical interested Barclays customers and that’s 149,040 customers, or about 1.2% of their retail customers who might even think about moving because of Apple Pay.
Figures all very rough and plenty of assumptions, but the long and short of it for me is that there was little incentive for Barclays to rush because the number of customers likely to jump ship is pretty minimal in comparison to their overall customer base. Plenty of other pressing things they should be tackling to retain customers, like their consistently lousy customer satisfaction ratings!
Obviously keen Apple Pay users will be over-represented on these forums, but I'm really struggling to believe that more than a few hundred customers, maybe low thousands, would go through the pain of switching accounts and changing bank cards just because Barclays delayed implementation of an embryonic payment system that doesn't do anything fundamentally new (i.e., it does exactly what contactless cards do, but in a more secure and possibly more convenient way).
(That said, once Apple Pay was announced they should have realised that bPay was dead in the water.)
Figures all very rough and plenty of assumptions, but the long and short of it for me is that there was little incentive for Barclays to rush because the number of customers likely to jump ship is pretty minimal in comparison to their overall customer base. Plenty of other pressing things they should be tackling to retain customers, like their consistently lousy customer satisfaction ratings!
Obviously keen Apple Pay users will be over-represented on these forums, but I'm really struggling to believe that more than a few hundred customers, maybe low thousands, would go through the pain of switching accounts and changing bank cards just because Barclays delayed implementation of an embryonic payment system that doesn't do anything fundamentally new (i.e., it does exactly what contactless cards do, but in a more secure and possibly more convenient way).
(That said, once Apple Pay was announced they should have realised that bPay was dead in the water.)
It's a lot easier to switch banks in the UK though, no? I mean sure, there's 10k+ banks and credit unions in the US, but they make it difficult to switch banks for various reasons.
Dunno about now. Barclays were always notorious for being very difficult to switch from. I remember when I looked into it a couple of years ago. It should be better now with the Current Account Switch Service.
But even if all of the hassle of moving direct debits and standing orders is easy, there's still the admin of sorting out new bank cards, registering new cards with shopping websites, etc. Barclays have many faults and I'm no shill for them, but I need more than a new way to pay contactlessly (is that even a word?) before I'll deal with that headache.
But even if all of the hassle of moving direct debits and standing orders is easy, there's still the admin of sorting out new bank cards, registering new cards with shopping websites, etc. Barclays have many faults and I'm no shill for them, but I need more than a new way to pay contactlessly (is that even a word?) before I'll deal with that headache.
Thanks For the advice. Will try on a not busy station firstThe tube is the only downside to the Apple Pay world. Basically you have Oyster... which is quick and easy, then you have contactless debt / credit cards which take about half a second more and slows it down going through the gate but recently I've been hearing the Apple Pay using a phone / watch is even slower. The last thing you need on a busy commute through a London tube station is getting held up by holding a phone or watch at the gates. You'd get about 10 people all looking at you and judging you!!
Yeah, some people are weird.
I'm with Barclays but don't mind about waiting for Apple Pay, seeing as I have contactless cards for Debit, Credit & Business with them already.
Maybe they're also using it as an opportunity to switch to an account which offers better incentives.
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Hopefully they will let Apple Pay be used with a business account, otherwise i'll be changing banks.
I use contactless everyday in London and on the tube so would be great to have it on my watch and phone.
I use contactless everyday in London and on the tube so would be great to have it on my watch and phone.
Barclays just called me because I made an official complaint about Apple Pay and they told me they're currently in a "testing phase" (she claimed HSBC had experienced a lot of errors when it first launched) and that it could be up to 12 months before Barclays launch Apple Pay.
Also people are thinking it's extreme to switch to a different bank because of this - changing banks is ridiculously easy and the banks change all your direct debits etc over for you. It's an easier process with less hassle than switching mobile networks.
Also people are thinking it's extreme to switch to a different bank because of this - changing banks is ridiculously easy and the banks change all your direct debits etc over for you. It's an easier process with less hassle than switching mobile networks.
Be careful with the extra bank charges & commissions (may be more than the actual tube ticket) They have a warning on the tube website advising customers to beware of bank charges when using contactless cards from other countries. ok to try it for the hell of it, (it is really cool) but best get a visitor Oyster card for a few days.
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The tube is the only downside to the Apple Pay world. Basically you have Oyster... which is quick and easy, then you have contactless debt / credit cards which take about half a second more and slows it down going through the gate but recently I've been hearing the Apple Pay using a phone / watch is even slower. The last thing you need on a busy commute through a London tube station is getting held up by holding a phone or watch at the gates. You'd get about 10 people all looking at you and judging you!!
Never had any issues with people looking at me for using
PAY on the tube. I live in between Marble Arch & Edgware Rd, which are very central and extremely busy stations during the day. use both my Watch and iPhone 6+ I have never noticed anyone looking at me badly, then again do not pay much attention to other people around me! so maybe there are loads of people that really hate me! so yeah! maybe you have a point!!! my guess is people should just remember to double press button on Watch or double click home button with the correct finger PLACED on the iPhone BEFORE getting to the gate But like all payment systems people are the flaw, i.e. people in Waitrose standing 10min in the queue to use the "FAST" self serve checkout, then only seem to remember to look for their contactless card at the bottom of their bag when they need to pay! THOSE PEOPLE drive me nuts!!!
I changed accounts because my current provider didn't support ApplePay, but it was more complex than that. The reality is that, because they didn't support ApplePay, I looked at the banks that did. Any found that their products were better in every way than what I had with my current bank. So I moved.
I look on ApplePay as a bit like a firewall. I only have to log my real credit card details with Apple, and I trust their security more than most. It won't be perfect, but it is better to operate that way than share your card details with every minor website you transact with. I use PayPal too for similar reasons. The contactless aspect is just a fun extra, really. At least for now.
I look on ApplePay as a bit like a firewall. I only have to log my real credit card details with Apple, and I trust their security more than most. It won't be perfect, but it is better to operate that way than share your card details with every minor website you transact with. I use PayPal too for similar reasons. The contactless aspect is just a fun extra, really. At least for now.
I don't think I actually would change. I asked many people at Barclays including my Premier account manager and got the same BS back about details coming soon. The thing that annoyed me was the lack of any communication as to whether it would actually come and when. That's why I emailed the CEO and was surprised to get a response. I'll probably stick around and wait for but as someone who has an Apple Watch and iPhone 6 it's incredibly annoying to not be able to use these features yet when Barclays have always been first ones to jump in on the technology bandwagon.
That's what I did. I guess there are quite a lot of people that switched for this reason.