Apple Pay Might Be Coming To Europe Sooner Than You Think –– Here's EVERYTHING You Need To Know

Apple Pay wants to completely revolutionise how we pay for stuff. Here is everything you need to know about Apple Pay on the iPhone 6

Apple Pay is Apple's mobile payments solution introduced in October 2014. It allows you to use your iPhone 6 or 6 Plus or Apple Watch to make payments at NFC-equipped terminals in the United States. Right now well over 700,000 retail locations in the US accept Apple Pay including McDonalds, Bloomingdale’s, Subway, Petco, Staples, Macy’s, Walgreens, Sports Authority, and more. New retailer are singing up all the time too, with retail heavyweights like Best Buy and Urban Outfitters coming soon.

  Apple Pay can also be used on the iPad, in addition to the previous devices, to make payments directly inside Apple Pay-compatible apps. Apple that support Apple Pay payments include Airbnb, Groupon, Starbucks, Uber, Target, Ticketmaster, and dozens more as well.
Using Apple Pay is as simple as tapping your iPhone to an NFC terminal and touching your Touch ID or opening an Apple Pay-compatible app and Touching the Touch ID at checkout. But as you may have noticed the only caveat with Apple Pay is that you have to be based in the US–for now (more on that below). But if you are, you can use Apple Pay wherever you see this symbol:

Back in January Apple CEO Tim Cook shared some figures on Apple Pay during the company’s fiscal Q1 2015 earnings call. Cook revealed that around $2 out of every $3 spent using contactless payments across Visa, Mastercard, and American Express were being made with Apple Pay.
Mobile payments have been around for eons, but many experts believe it will take something like Apple Pay to make them truly mainstream. Google Wallet, for instance, has been around for a good long while now but has yet to become anything remotely close to a mainstream consumer product. Apple Pay, on the other hand, is fast becoming a buzzword for both consumers and retailers alike in the US (and it managed to do that in just under a month after its launch).
“Whole Foods,” reports The New York Times, “the high-end grocery chain, said it had processed more than 150,000 Apple Pay transactions. McDonald’s, which accepts Apple Pay at its 14,000 restaurants in the United States, said Apple Pay accounted for 50 percent of its tap-to-pay transactions. And Walgreens, the nationwide chain of drugstores, said its mobile wallet payments had doubled since Apple Pay came out.”
Tim Cook confirmed a wide breadth of partners using the payment service from fast food restaurants like McDonald’s and supermarkets like Whole Foods to the federal government which has deployed Apple Pay kiosks in national parks all over the US. More recently, Coke Cola has been rolling out Apple Pay on its vending machines, meaning punters can pay for a can of Coke simply by tapping their iPhone 6/6 Plus on the machine.

Apple has also expanded the number of banks it’s working with; its grown from just six at launch to over 300 participating issuers nationwide. Currently those issuers need to offer Visa, Mastercard, or American Express credit or debit cards, but recently Discover has announced it will be supporting Apple Pay this fall:
“As the mobile payments landscape matures, Discover remains committed to giving cardmembers secure options for using their cards and mobile devices,” said Diane Offereins, Discover’s president of payment services. “Discover’s focus on simplicity and value for our cardmembers aligns well with the way Apple Pay makes purchases easy and convenient.” 

In order to compete with Apple and PayPal in the mobile payments space, Samsung had to spend quite a bit of cash –– $250 million to be precise. Samsung acquired Massachusetts-based startup LoopPay last year and used its latent technology to power its Apple Pay alternative, Samsung Pay, which launches later on in 2015. 
“LoopPay invented a technology that originally allowed shoppers to pay for purchases in stores by placing a special piece of hardware — such as a fob or a smartphone case — near where you would normally swipe a credit card. With the acquisition, Samsung is embedding the LoopPay technology into its new phones, so shoppers can tap and pay with a new Samsung Galaxy 6 rather than whipping out a credit card or cash,” reports re/code. 
LoopPay’s technology mimics a card swipe, meaning it’ll work in just about any shop you can currently pay with a credit or debit card. This is a very different to how Apple and Google’s respective systems works, as both of which require an significant update to the check-out system. 

Apple Pay In The Rest Of The World

Apple Pay was rumored to launch in China with the release of iOS 8.3 earlier this yeat, but its launch has been delayed. Negations stalled after multiple Chinese banks and the state-owned card processor UnionPay were not happy with Apple’s proposed slice of the traction fee associated with credit/debit payments. Apple, says the sources, wanted 0.15% of the 2% charges levied on credit/debit payments in the region.
“A UnionPay employee who declined to be named said the company has not reached any agreements with the U.S. tech company,” reports 9to5Mac, “and no timetable for cooperation has been set. Those sources also say Apple has not made any breakthroughs in talks with Chinese banks, which would also have to agree for the Apple Pay system to work.”
And it’s not just Chinese banks that are unhappy about giving over a slice of the pie to Apple. UK banks too are said to be uneasy about giving away such a large percentage of their profits to Apple, a company with a market cap in the hundreds of billions. Apple Pay was meant to be rolling out here during the second half of 2015, but disputes over how much Apple is entitled too could lead to the service being delayed for months –– if not until 2016.

Good News For Europe, Though!

"Apple Pay may be making its way to Belgium following WWDC, KBC Bank indicated on Twitter today," notes 9to5Mac. "The bank recently added NFC support to its payment cards, prompting a customer to ask if the institution would ever add support for Apple Pay. The bank replied that the service would be available starting this summer, indicating a possible announcement at WWDC. Other countries and financial institutions worldwide are likely to gain support as well around that time."
Things are a little better for Apple Pay if you are in Canada. As the Wall Street Journal reports, Apple Pay is set to roll out there in November if the current talks with the Royal Bank of Canada, TD Canada Trust, Scotiabank, Bank of Montreal, CIBC and National Bank of Canada. Though the WSJ does note that those banks have their apprehensions too:
"The banks are open to an agreement, but they aren’t happy with Apple’s fee proposals and are concerned about security vulnerabilities like the ones that U.S. banks experienced as they rolled out the service, the people said."

Still... The Feedback In The US Has Been Excellent

Besides the apprehension from international banks, the rollout of Apple Pay has been good to date. More than one million Chase Bank customers have registered their cards for use with Apple Pay. The news was confirmed during an investor’s call as part of JP Morgan Chase’s 2015 Investor Day.
"We were an early participant of Apple Pay," said Eileen Serra, CEO of Chase Card Services. "We do continue to see good growth in the number of consumers that are provisioning Chase cards in their Apple Pay wallet.”
"We've been excited about the feedback we've gotten in terms of the great customer experience," Serra said. "As more merchants adopt, I would expect to see more traction here, as well."
Serra said Chase customers who use Apple Pay tend to be younger with higher incomes, reports Apple Insider, which is to be expected considering the platform relies on iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus for touchless payments. Since Apple Pay's launch, 69 percent of Chase card transactions were credit based, while debit made up the remaining 31 percent of purchases.

What Do I Need To Use Apple Pay?

To use Apple Pay in stores you need an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus running iOS 8.1 or higher. You can also use Apple Pay on your brand new Apple Watch. You’ll also need a US iTunes account and at least one US credit or debit card. To use Apple Pay to make an in app or web-based purchases you’ll need an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air 2, or iPad mini 3 running iOS 8.1 or higher as well as a US iTunes account and at least one US credit or debit card.

How Does Apple Pay Work?

For in store use it uses the NFC chip inside the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus and the Touch ID on these two devices. When you want to purchase something at a participating retailer you simply hold your iPhone over the NFC terminal at the register and tap the Touch ID.
For app and web-based purchases Apple Pay does not require an NFC chip, only the Touch ID, which is why transactions can be completed on the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3. To use Apple Pay for making in-app purchases, tap the Apple Pay button in the app and then place your finger on the Touch ID on your iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air 2, or iPad mini 3.

How Do I Add A Payment Method To Apple Pay?

In two ways: you can use the payment card you already have on file with your iTunes account or you can add separate credit and debit cards.

Setting Up Apple Pay With Your Existing Card On File With Your iTunes Account: 

It’s simple, but the procedure varies slightly depending on if you are setting it up on an iPhone 6 or iPad Air and iPad mini.

1. If you are using an iPhone 6, open the Passbook app. If you are using an iPad Air 2 or iPad mini 3 go to the Settings app and tap Passbook & Apple Pay.
2. On iPhone, if you don’t have any passes set up already tap “Set Up Apple Pay” on the placeholder card. If you do have passes in Passbook already, pull the passes down from the top of the screen until you see the + button in the upper right corner. If you’re on iPad in the Settings app all you need to do is tap “Add Credit or Debit Card”.
3. Next tap “Use Card on File with iTunes”.
4. You’ll be taken to a screen that asks you to enter the 3-digit security code from the back of the card. Do it then tap next.
5. On the next screen your bank will process the information and then give you options of verifying that you want to add the card. Options include calling a phone number or entering a code sent via email or text. Note that different banks may offer only some of these options and not all.
6. Once your card is verified, you’re done. It will appear at the top of Passbook on the iPhone and be listed in the Passbook & Apple Pay section of the Settings app in iPad.

Setting Up Apple Pay For Use With A New (Or Additional) Credit Or Debit Card: 

If you don’t want to connect your card on file with your iTunes account to your Apple Pay account you can choose to add a different card. As with adding an iTunes card account, the procedure is slightly different depending whether you’re doing this on an iPhone or iPad.

1. If you are using an iPhone 6, open the Passbook app. If you are using an iPad Air 2 or iPad mini 3 go to the Settings app and tap Passbook & Apple Pay.
2. On iPhone, if you don’t have any passes set up already tap “Set Up Apple Pay” on the placeholder card. If you do have passes in Passbook already, pull the passes down from the top of the screen until you see the + button in the upper right corner. If you’re on iPad in the Settings app all you need to do is tap “Add Credit or Debit Card”.
3. Next tap “Use a Different Credit or Debit Card”.
4. You’ll be taken to the card details screen where you have two ways of entering your card information. You can choose to type in the card name and number manually, or you can choose to let your iPhone or iPad grab your information from the card by taking a picture of it. To do this, tap the blue camera icon.
5. On the card image capture screen position your credit card within the white frame outline. Your iOS device’s camera will autofocus for a few seconds and then you’ll see white text and numbers overlay the text and numbers on your credit or debit card when your iOS device has grabbed the information from it (it does this by using simple optical character recognition software).
6. You’ll be taken to a screen that asks you to enter the 3-digit security code from the back of the card. Do it then tap next.
7. On the next screen your bank will process the information and then give you options of verifying that you want to add the card. Options include calling a phone number or entering a code sent via email or text. Note that different banks may offer only some of these options and not all.
8. Once your card is verified, you’re done. It will appear at the top of Passbook on the iPhone and be listed in the Passbook & Apple Pay section of the Settings app in iPad.

Apple’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus support Apple Pay, and while the service is not yet live in the UK, plenty of our US readers will no doubt already feel right at home paying for goods in store with just their your iPhone.