Apple Pay Launch in the UK

Technology is advancing at such a pace currently.  The latest offering is Apple Pay, but what is it?  How do you use it?  Finally are you able to use it?

Apple Pay is Apple’s version of a contactless payment option, similar to contactless payment bank cards.  It has a key feature that make it more secure than many contactless payment options in operation to date, in that it utilises the finger print recognition technology on Apple devises.

To use the Apple Pay system customers need to go to the settings option of their phones and open the Passbook & Apple Pay section, here they are able to add a credit or debit payment card.  There is an option to use the same card details that are saved on users iTunes account, or details can be manually typed in.  Better still users can touch a camera icon and take a photo of their payment card and the devise will extract the data it needs from the image and will import the information it requires.  Then after accepting the Terms and Conditions and entering a billing address, then, in theory, you are ready to go shopping

It’s an exciting development, but unfortunately it is not available for all Apple customers.  It only works on the more recent devises, which have a near-field communication (NFC) chip installed during manufacture.  So if you have an iPhone 6, iPhone 6 plus, Apple Watch, iPad Air 2 or iPad Mini 3, you’re in luck.  You will also need to be 13 or over to use the Apple Pay service.

At the moment transactions are limited to £20, but this is set to increase to £30 from September 2015. 

To make a payment you will need to bring your devise in range with a payment reader, you can choose either your default card or select a different card, then place your finger over the finger print reader and that’s it, you have paid for your item.  It certainly sounds like a sleek operation, but the launch itself didn’t go as smoothly as it should.  Consumers were set to make their first purchases only to find that not all banks were working with the new payment service, which lead to a fair amount of disappointment.  I’m sure these banks will be on board soon.