Skip to main content

Apple Pay

See All Stories

Apple Pay is Apple’s mobile payments solution that allows users to seamlessly use their phone to pay for purchases both in retail stores, apps, and the web. The service was first introduced in 2014 and has been expanding to additional countries ever since then.

The service works in retail stores by simply holding your iPhone over a compatible checkout terminal and authenticating the purchase via Touch ID, or your Apple Watch with no further authentication required once you have unlocked the Watch. It’ss compatible with all iPhones from 6/6 Plus and and beyond, and all versions of Apple Watch.

In apps, it works by pulling in your card information and seamlessly allowing you to checkout using that card information. This prevents you from having to manually enter your card information every time you want to make a purchase. In addition to working with all of the iPhone models previously mentioned, Apple Pay in apps also works on iPads from the iPad mini 3 and Air 2 and beyond. Apple Pay is supported on the Mac and on the web with iOS 10 and macOS Sierra and beyond.

In addition to working with debit and credit cards, Apple Pay also works with rewards cards and store cards. This means that you can add something like your Starbucks card, Walgreens Balance Rewards card, and more to the Wallet app to easily keep track of everything.

To set up Apple Pay on an iPhone, open the Wallet app on iOS 11 and tap the plus (+) icon in the top right corner to begin, then follow the prompts. To add a debit card to the Apple Watch, go to the Apple Watch app on iPhone and look for the Wallet & Apple Pay section, then Add Credit or Debit Card section.

Apple Pay is the dominant mobile payments solution, even forcing its biggest potential competitor to shutdown, and as the service continues to expand, it will only get better. View the full list of retailers and banks that support the service on Apple’s website

Apple Pay is available in the following countries (click the country name to see compatible banks):

Australia

China*

Hong Kong

Japan

Kazakhstan

New Zealand

Singapore

Taiwan

Belgium

Czech Republic

Denmark

Finland

France

Germany

Guernsey

Ireland

Isle of Man

Italy

Jersey

Monaco

Norway

Poland

Russia

San Marino

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

Ukraine

United Kingdom

Vatican City

Brazil

Saudi Arabia

United Arab Emirates

Canada

The United States

How to set up Express Transit with Apple Pay for any card with iOS 12.3

Express Transit lets you use Apple Pay without requiring authentication like Touch ID or Face ID. This means you can make instant transactions at transit gates and terminals just by tapping your watch or phone.

Until recently, this convenience was limited to special transit cards like Suica in Japan. With iOS 12.3, Apple has now enabled the ability for any credit or debit card to be used with Express Transit. There is a catch though …


Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple announces support for Apple Pay NFC stickers, partners with Bird scooters and more

Apple Pay NFC

Apple’s VP of Apple Pay Jennifer Bailey today announced a new NFC feature for iPhone: special tags that trigger Apple Pay purchases when tapped, without the need to download a special app first. The company is partnering with Bird scooters, Bonobos clothing store, and PayByPhone parking meters for the initial rollout.

Apple also announced that inside the Wallet app, users will soon be able to sign up for loyalty cards in one tap, presumably presented to users as recommendations when they make eligible purchases.


Expand
Expanding
Close

The two reasons Apple Pay in the US lags way behind Europe [Video]

Why is Apple Pay in the US rolling out so slowly?

When we reported that JCPenney had stopped supporting Apple Pay, some European readers were confused about the state of Apple Pay in the US. Why did the chain need to specifically support Apple Pay when everywhere in Europe accepts it because it’s effectively just another contactless card?

A reader suggested I write an explainer, which I added to my to-do list only to find that CNBC did it for me in video form …


Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple Pay launches in Austria with two supporting banks, more coming soon

Apple Pay

As rumored, Apple Pay has indeed launched today in Austria. The supporting banks are Erste Sparkasse and N26, across Maestro, Mastercard, and Visa debit and credit cards. If you meet this criteria, open the Wallet app on your iPhone and press the Add button to start setting up Apple Pay. You may need to restart your phone to get the Wallet app to refresh.

Apple has announced that additional Austrian Apple Pay partners are ‘coming soon’, including Bank Austria, Boon, Edenred, Revolut, and VIMPay.


Expand
Expanding
Close

JCPenney drops Apple Pay support from retail stores and app

JCPenney Apple Pay support dropped

Update: JCPenney told TechCrunch that it was unable to update its payment terminals to meet the latest requirements, so has switched off contactless functionality altogether. Read: it’s using old kit and can’t afford to replace it.

Department store giant JCPenney has dropped support for Apple Pay from both its retail stores, and its app.

The company’s Twitter support account confirmed the change over the weekend …


Expand
Expanding
Close

Thoughts on Apple’s News+, Card, Arcade, and TV+ event — something for everyone

Tim Cook Apple event

On Monday, I attended Apple’s very different kind of special event at Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park. There was no new hardware to unveil — new iPads, iMacs, and AirPods came the week before — so four new services took the show: Apple News+, Apple Card, Apple Arcade, and Apple TV+


Expand
Expanding
Close

Survey finds that, ironically, it takes a physical card to persuade some people to use Apple Pay

physical Apple Card will boost Apple Pay usage

While regular Apple Pay users tend to love the mobile wallet service, Apple so far hasn’t really hit mass-market adoption. Ironically, it seems a physical Apple Card could be the thing that changes that.

Absolute numbers for Apple Pay sound impressive. Tim Cook announced that there were over a billion Apple Pay transactions in Q3 of 2018, for example. It’s been estimated that around a third of iPhone users have activated it.

But if you look at usage in percentage terms, things look less rosy …


Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple ends funding Apple Pay Cash from credit cards as it announces its own card

Funding Apple Pay Cash no longer possible from credit card

Apple has quietly ended the the option of funding Apple Pay Cash balances from a credit card. The company made the low-key announcement on the same day it announced the Apple Card.

Previously, if you wanted to make a person-to-person payment via Apple Cash, and didn’t have sufficient balance, you could withdraw money from a linked credit card …


Expand
Expanding
Close

Manage push notifications

notification icon
We would like to show you notifications for the latest news and updates.
notification icon
You are subscribed to notifications
notification icon
We would like to show you notifications for the latest news and updates.
notification icon
You are subscribed to notifications