ING and Macquarie Now Support Apple Pay in Australia

[MacRumors]

Both ING Direct and Macquarie have implemented support for Apple Pay in Australia, according to Apple's updated Apple Pay website in the country. Starting today, both ING Direct and Macquarie customers can use Apple Pay for purchases in participating stores and locations with an eligible device.

Apple Pay support at the two banks comes more than a year after Apple Pay first became available in the country through a partnership with American Express.

The service is available in retail stores on iPhone SE, 6, 6s, 6 Plus, 6s Plus, 7, 7 Plus, and older devices using the Apple Watch. In-app and web purchases can also be made using the aforementioned devices, a supported iPad, or one of Apple's new MacBook Pros.

While ANZ and many smaller banks support Apple Pay in Australia, three of the country's major banks, including Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, and Westpac, are currently embroiled in an ongoing dispute with Apple that has seen the banks refusing to accept Apple Pay.

The banks have asked the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to give them permission to negotiate with Apple to gain access to the NFC chip in the iPhone, allowing the iPhone to be used with the banks' own NFC-based payment solutions.

Apple does not allow third-party services to access the NFC chips built into its most recent devices for security reasons and has argued that the banks' challenge is harmful to consumers and would stifle innovation in mobile payments.

The ACCC sided with Apple in an initial ruling, but both sides are continuing to submit arguments and the banks recently re-submitted their application asking for permission to work together to make a deal with Apple.

Apple Pay is available in 13 countries, including the United States, UK, China, Australia, Canada, Switzerland, France, Hong Kong, Russia, Singapore, Japan, New Zealand, and Spain.

Article Link: ING and Macquarie Now Support Apple Pay in Australia

 

[Kaibelf]

The way things are going the bank arrangements will likely be similar to how the major retailers are in the US. A few banks will be the WalmartPay, TargetPay, and CVSWhatever of mobile banking, and everyone else will move to something better and more consistent in line with Apple and Google. I wonder if this will drag out into some bizarre CurrentC debacle as well in time, or if these banks will just let their account holders go on with life without the banks demanding to "share their information with trusted partners" forever.

 

[Aussi3]

Wish the banks would just use Apple Pay so annoying considering just changing to ANZ

 

[341328]

used it this morning (ING) for my coffee purchase (NSW, Australia)... worked great.

 

[buthidae]

I got an email an hour ago from ING Direct - live for Apple Pay. Updated the app and added my card successfully. Previous cards have used SMS to verify the card, this one had the option of using the app or calling them.

Looking forward to using it!

 

[Solution Monster]

Used it this morning on my Apple Watch - worked seamlessly.

Have been really impressed with ING and cannot recommend them highly enough others - No ATM fees anywhere in Australia, high-interest savings accounts and a proper online banking experience (Unlike NAB).

Time to close my NAB & CBA accounts.

 

[341328]

No ATM fees anywhere in Australia

You forgot that you must debit $1000 a month to get this.

 

[Juiceboy]

You forgot that you must debit $1000 a month to get this.

It's not hard if you've got a job

 

[dave2010]

This is handy for those that want to use cash money. ANZ also has visa debit, but you had to deposit $2000 a month or be hit with a monthly fee. With ING you can now use Apple Pay for free.

Personally, I spend enough on my ANZ credit card to not pay the annual fee, get plenty of iTunes credits and I've never paid interest on a credit card. Plus, the insurance actually worked when I poured liquid on a new MacBook, they paid me the purchase price back.

 

[Speedy Dingo]

Good to see more banks join ANZ and the rest of the sensible banks who see the benefit of Apple Pay. Now the remaining 3 big banks; CBA, Westpac and NAB can keep trying to get access to the NFC chip in the iPhone while they keep losing customers to other banks. They seem to be more stubborn than Apple...

 

[tmiw]

The way things are going the bank arrangements will likely be similar to how the major retailers are in the US. A few banks will be the WalmartPay, TargetPay, and CVSWhatever of mobile banking, and everyone else will move to something better and more consistent in line with Apple and Google. I wonder if this will drag out into some bizarre CurrentC debacle as well in time, or if these banks will just let their account holders go on with life without the banks demanding to "share their information with trusted partners" forever.

The main difference is that I'm not sure "everyone else" is moving to NFC in the US. There are a lot of stores and a lot of banks out here.

Meanwhile, Australia only has four (five?) major banks, so there's not that many that need convincing.

 

[341328]

It's not hard if you've got a job

I know. It's still a condition worth mentioning.

 

[Nobita]

ING is really great. They also has very high interest rate for savings account, and their iOS and watch app are very nice.

 

[KiwiAdventure]

This is great news and waiting for the other big Australian banks to eat humble pie and give into Apple.

 

[Bradjc1]

This is handy for those that want to use cash money. ANZ also has visa debit, but you had to deposit $2000 a month or be hit with a monthly fee. With ING you can now use Apple Pay for free.

Personally, I spend enough on my ANZ credit card to not pay the annual fee, get plenty of iTunes credits and I've never paid interest on a credit card. Plus, the insurance actually worked when I poured liquid on a new MacBook, they paid me the purchase price back.

Agreed! Love that I can use a debit card now with it. It's a bit TOO fun to use though. I spent a bit of money today just testing it out. That chime is very satisfying.

 

[Shirasaki]

When possible I would really like to have a new account from ANZ, or ING or Macquire (less likely) for Apple Pay support.

I don't mean their basic service is bad but still a burden nonetheless when using their cards.

Oh, Target won't support Apple Pay anytime soon? Just mention.

 

[tmanto02]

Wish the banks would just use Apple Pay so annoying considering just changing to ANZ

Do it...I switched from st George. Now have my Amex, visa credit and visa debit all on Apple Pay - the best!

 

[jer04]

ING and Macquarie, they offer two of the best personal accounts in Australia. Just thought they couldn't get any better.

Too bad I don't ever use debit card to purchase anything...wish my credit card provider can finally support Apple Pay, but no, they would rather fixate on the stupid idea of releasing their own mobile payment app.

 

[alvindarkness]

Wish the banks would just use Apple Pay so annoying considering just changing to ANZ

I have both ANZ and ING. You are better off going ING I think, I don't even know why I keep ANZ, its a horrible bank with horrendous fees.

 

[friednoodles]

Oh, Target won't support Apple Pay anytime soon? Just mention.

Just to clarify for those who might not know what the situation is, Target in Australia supports Apple Pay. (as essentially every retailer in Aus has for years and years, due to widespread roll out of NFC support a long time ago when the banks switched to NFC credit cards)

 

[Rocwurst]

The other three big banks will give in soon enough judging by the enormous success ANZ is seeing with Apple Pay:

The Australian Financial Review reports that: "ANZ Banking Group says 26 per cent of its customers are now using Apple Pay, and more than 10 million transactions have been made on the service since its launch, with Apple users spending 10 times more through their phones than Android users."

Separately the ANZ has reported a 20% increase in new users thanks to Apple Pay and Australians make more Apple Pay transactions a month than any other customers around the world.

Add to this the fact that "Apple Pay accounts for 75% of all contactless payments in the US" and that includes contactless credit cards as well as Android mobile wallet competitors. Also "More than half of the mobile payment service’s transaction volume now comes from non-US markets."

Considering the iPhone has 44.9% smartphone market share in Australia, similar to the 44.4% market share in the USA according to Kantar we are looking at very compelling evidence for massive Apple Pay adoption across the country.

Then there is the fact that the Apple user demographic has far higher household income than Android users and the iOS platform generates 400% greater e-commerce revenue than the Android platform according to both IBM and Adobe and we see a perfect storm that will force the remaining banks to cave in soon enough for fear of losing their most lucrative customers to competitors.

 

[kdarling]

The banks have asked the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to give them permission to negotiate with Apple ...

Important detail: they're asking permission to negotiate together.

They don't need permission to negotiate separately.

A later sentence correctly includes the together part.

 

[moxxham]

I have a savings account with ING which I love! Opened an everyday account because of Apple Pay and man, its so convenient!
Only concern is: Say I buy something, and I go to return it cause of a fault. And lets say my card had been replaced caused it expired, how do I get a refund as the new Device Acc Number would be different because its a new card?

 

[friednoodles]

In most cases, when you're issued a new card because your previous card expired (or was replaced), what's supposed to happen is that behind the scenes the bank and Apple's system automatically associate the new details with your existing Device Account Number, so nothing changes. (there were a few stories a while ago about how this works)

However, some people in the US mentioned that their bank didn't support this and they had to delete the card and add it back, resulting in a different Device Account Number. (I don't know what the Aus banks support because I haven't yet had my ANZ or Amex cards expire.)

Regardless, even if the Device Account Number changes, the merchant should be able to look up the transaction via your receipt and their system can still refund it to the old Device Account Number, which works just the same as a refund to an expired/cancelled credit card number works. (internally the bank associates the old number with the same account so that refunds can be processed and appear on the new card; this is something that you can run into every so often when you run an online business and need to do a refund with no card present - you issue the refund through the payment gateway and it uses the old number, then the card owner's bank automatically sorts it out)

 

[kdarling]

The other three big banks will give in soon enough judging by the enormous success ANZ is seeing with Apple Pay:

The Australian Financial Review reports that: "ANZ Banking Group says 26 per cent of its customers are now using Apple Pay, and more than 10 million transactions have been made on the service since its launch, with Apple users spending 10 times more through their phones than Android users."

AFR later also noted that an analyst said that:

"The 10 million transaction figure was "appalling", given this was less than 1 basis point (less than 1/100th of one percent) of the total debit and credit card transactions in April to November across the economy of almost 5 billion, according to RBA data."

Moreover, judging from a previous AFR report of 20% of eligible customers back in August, it seems likely that the 26% figure is also the percentage of eligible Apple Pay customers, not of their entire customer base. The analyst suggests that:

"... the maximum market for Apple Pay customers based on local sales of iPhone 6s and 7s should only be 510,000. Based on ANZ's market share, he estimates there are only 147,000 ANZ users "

Personally, I think it's probably twice that.