Apple Pay

[jeffkinn]

It looks highly likely that Apple Pay is coming to Britain soon and it's likely to be announced at tomorrow evening's WWDC keynote presentation.

Do we think that Apple Pay will finally shake up the mobile phone contactless payment market?

Would you use it if and when it comes here? (Non Apple users can answer as well).

How will this affect the Vodafone offering which has a number of restrictions?

[63johnw]

A few outlets round my area take contactless now, i have used my debit card several times now and its worked great. 

I would definitely give it a go if it becomes more widely available.

The current vodafone system seems to have to many restrictions at the minute, if I am going to use it I want it on the sim itself.

I am flying with easyjet on Wednesday, have got the app @jeffkinn and have downloaded my boarding passes to use with the app.

[jeffkinn]

I'm flying with Easyjet in a couple of weeks. Perhaps I'll try it!

[hrym]

I think that's it.  London seems to have "got it" and I suspect/assume other large cities have.  These are all large chains that, even if they've penetrated out here to the sticks, aren't that prevalent.  In some cases (eg Starbucks) chain-owned outlets have it, but not franchises - which I assume the service area ones are, as they don't.

I'll add McDonalds and Waitrose cafes to your list, btw.

[jeffkinn]

It'll spread to independent outlets soon enough. I would think that any new credit card terminals being disturbuted to retail outlets now are contactless enabled.

[hrym]

Absolutely.  When I used cc terminals, we quite regularly used to get new ones to add some kind of feature.  All our stuff was mail-order, so we never used any of them!

Thing is, even if a terminal is plainly contactless-capable, it isn't always enabled  - or the till people say it isn't, which may not be the same thing...

[BandOfBrothers]

Just read this Source Stuff.

"Apple Pay reportedly launching in UK on 14 July"

"And it looks like that date is 14 July, or just a week from Tuesday. This comes from 9to5Mac, which says that some Apple Store employees in the UK have been told of the date. Apple will reportedly begin training its employees on 12 July to begin accepting the contactless payments platform.

Additionally, the site got its hands on internal memos from retail partner Waitrose, which similarly lists the 14th as the date in which the service goes live in stores. Between the two, it certainly sounds like Apple's promise of a July launch will be fulfilled by mid-month."

"Still, there's a potentially frustrating limitation still in place: currently, contactless payments are capped at just £20 per transaction, making them suitable for only small purchases - like train and bus fares, or food and drinks.

That limit will raise to £30 come September, according to the UK Cards Association, but that's not a lot of wiggle room, and it puts a damper on the potential of services like Apple Pay, Android Pay, and others on the horizon."

I asked my Bank H.S.B.C a few weeks ago and more recently on information from their side and they had nothing they could update me with. 😒.

What do you think about the Cap ? Good or not so good ? Better for security or a throttled service ?

[jeffkinn]

This is a subject that I take a close interest in. I have spoken in depth to Barclays, my own bank, as they are currently the only major UK bank that hasn't announced its support for Apple Pay. I've been told by my manager that Barclays won't be left behind but I have no hard information about their plans. They are busy marketing their b-pay solution and it's clear they have no intention of ceding this space to Apple.

I work in financial services all of the time and the whole industry is hidebound by compliance coupled with fear. The £20 limit soon to be £30 is wholly inadequate but it won't change for some time. Also the number of retailers that use contactless terminals generally is far too small and only customer pressure will see that increase and the payment limit set at something useful. Both of these will take a long time to come to pass.

[hrym]

Given the issues with double-tapping (two cards in the same wallet getting charged for the same transaction) and the concern some people have over brush-by reading (someone reads your card in a crowd - whether that's a real thing has yet to be seen), I suspect a cap is essential for public acceptance for the time being.

What would be nice, of course, would be a user-selectable cap that could be activated in an ATM in the same way that you change a PIN.  There could even be a zero option for people who want to turn contactless off altogether.

The idea of contactless, of course, is that it replaces cash for quick purchases.   We probably all have different idea of how much constitutes a quick purchase, but £20 or £30 probably does it for me.

[Nabs]

So todays the day... anyone tried it out yet?

[BandOfBrothers]

I'm told  will release some update for the iPhone 6 and 6+

HSBC accidentally released on Twitter today's the day they go live !