Apple is planning to announce support for Apple Pay in the United Kingdom during its Monday Worldwide Developers Conference kickoff keynote, according to a report from The Telegraph. The report adds that the service will go live in the U.K. within two months. Mike Cowan, a Senior VP at MasterCard, told the publication that his company is “absolutely” ready to support Apple Pay abroad. We have heard this as well, including that major bank Lloyds is a planned launch partner. We have also received a tip claiming that Santander UK is gearing up for new mobile payments training in the coming weeks. The U.K. will likely mark the first international expansion of Apple Pay since its launch in the United States last fall…
Last year, reports claimed that Apple Pay was due to go live in the first half of 2015 in the U.K, so it appears that the original plan is still on target. We’ve reported that Apple has built-in Apple Pay ties for Canada in its upcoming iOS 9 iPhone operating system, and a launch for Canada looks likely for the fall. Apple is also in talks to bring the service to China in the near future. Apple could also debut an Apple Pay rewards program at next week’s conference. Apple is also planning to expand iTunes Radio to the UK next week.
Our full WWDC roundup details all of the other new features coming to iOS 9, OS X 10.11, the Apple Watch, and Apple Music.
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I live in Spain but that’s big news anyways.
We’ll never see the day when you can pay for your dorada at Mercadona with the Watch.
I think this will finish with the credit card fraud and cash point id theft systems, all this my sounds incredible and maybe reality all so.
And maybe get a chipper interest rate from the Credit Card and Banks companies consider that fraud is down. For business a lower charge for using this system and all so for the user of this pay system,will be great for everyone.
well… it’s big news but not that big at the same time cuz i remember iTunes Movies on iCloud didnt land here in Spain until 2 years after other regions and iTunes TV shows are still unavailable so…
I’m guessing Visa (Europe) might be part of any announcement, in that they haven’t supplied a quote, unlike Mastercard?
“Transport for London is already taking Apple Pay payments for travel in the capital from American tourists. The service was introduced in the US in October.”
Numbers wise TfL is processing 1.2m open loop contactless payment transactions every day (which I guess includes Oyster). Will do wonders for Apple Watch sales in London i’d imagine. UK has a fair amount of Chip and pin and contactless PoS terminals – we’re just waiting for banks to get things sorted and Apple to give the nod?
Ah well – HomeKit, ResearchKit, Apple Pay – they were always going to be multi-year projects to roll out. Lot of inertia i’d imagine, and failed previous attempts, so the delays aren’t that bad.
Yeah. It’s pretty much down to making deals with the banks at this point. The tech is there, it’s been there for a few years in most places outside of the US too. I see contactless payment terminals most places I go (UK). It’s mostly the places still using the older systems that haven’t gotten to their next refresh cycle that don’t support it. It’s extremely common in fast food places though, for obvious reasons.
I can relate. I extremely rarely come across terminals that don’t support contactless payment here too (UK). Can’t wait for Pay ^_^
You’re in the UK? Why then are you using American English? The word ‘gotten’ does not exist in standard English.
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Apple will announce support for #ApplePay in the United Kingdom during Monday’s Worldwide Developers Conference kickoff.
Any news on whether it will be limited to £20 as contactless cards are?
I don’t think it has any limitation in terms of the amount you can pay. The reason normal contactless cards have that limitation is for “damage control” in case your card gets in the wrong hands. They won’t be able to make much damage being limited to paying £20 at a time. But if your phone gets in the wrong hands, they won’t be able to do anything with it (not even pay £20 at a time).
I do agree with Florin, however, I have noticed in my local supermarket that when ever my purchase goes above £20, and I try to pay with contactless, the machine just won’t read it at all, almost like the NFC function is deactivated on the terminal. Whether or not it will be able to detect an apple NFC phone or watch as different to a debit card NFC chip and undo the limiter, I guess we will wait and see. In theory it should be limitless but I suspect that existing terminals will still be limited to the £20.
Fingers crossed it’s not. That £20 limit is a real pain. My daily shopping always comes in at close to £20 and I get really annoyed when I go over. How spoiled we have all become, that typing a PIN in has become such a chore. It’s embarrassing.
Terminals can be modified remotely to allow On device verification for transactions over £20 (£30 from September). I’ve noticed BP and IKEA now have the tap prompt on transactions over £20.
What about the rest of Europe, esp. Germany?
Lloyds and TSB now is two separate banks in the UK since a while now. Also the majority of UK cards are quit possibly Visas. Also the first bank to implement Touch Id login to its banking app was NatWest, which is part of the RBS group.
UK, and most of Europe is a goldmine in the rise of digital wallets. Every terminal, in UK, which is now supplied has contactless capabilities. Pay is going to be huge here. However, the security features will need to be pushed to give trust in contactless in general, which is where apple can shine:
I just came back from a trip to London. Hardly used cash while there. More transactions through Apple Pay than cash by a long shot. Seemed like almost every place supported it aside from taxis and a few really small retailers.
That may be the case in London, but out here in the wilds of East Anglia it is an entirely different game !
Where I live only two places have contactless (of those I use) – Marks & Spencer, and our local Co-op
You’d probably be surprised. Many retailers have contactless machines and don’t even realise they have a contactless machine. Unless the machine a retailer has is 4 or more years old, it’ll probably take contactless. Here in Norwich most of my under £20 transactions are now contactless.
Sounds like it’s just your town. Most retailers here in Canterbury have contact less, the only notable exception is Tesco.
Dan I live in East Anglia, Colchester! What I found hilarious was that my local corner shop can do contactless payments but our massive Sainsburys (Massive UK supermarket) cannot!
Dan I live in East Anglia, Colchester! What I found hilarious was that my local corner shop can do contactless payments but our massive Sainsburys (Massive UK supermarket) cannot!
Wow thats fast. And yes I’m joking.