It would’ve been unthinkable ten years ago that you could walk up to a till and pay for your goods with a mobile. Well Apple have done just that and very well I must say.
Back in July they announced the new Apple Pay facility that lets you pay for goods using an iPhone 6, iPhone 6S or an iWatch in the same way a contactless credit card works.
It does have limitations in thatyou can only purchase items with a total value of £30 so its fine for your small and everyday purchases but you’d be a bit short if you wanted to buy a new iPhone!
SO HOW DOES IT WORK?
With the Apple Passbook App, you can add debit and credit cards to your digital wallet. It uses the Near-Field Communication (NFC) technology found in the Apple 6, 6S and iWatch; this won’t work in any of the older models.
The card details stored on the handset or watch are not passed on to the retailer and the one major advantage with the Apple Pay compared to the contactless debit and credit cards is that it’s designed in such a way that the payment must also be verified by the owner’s fingerprint using the Apple Touch ID.
WHICH CARDS CAN I USE?
At the time of writing, NatWest, Nationwide Building Society, Royal Bank of Scotland, Santander, Ulster Bank, MBNA, First Direct, HSBC, Bank of Scotland, Halifax and Lloyds Bank can be used. Coutts, M&S Bank and TSB say they’ll join Apple Pay at some point later this year.
WHERE CAN I USE APPLE PAY
Most of the retailers that already accept contactless debit and credit card payments will accept Apple Pay.
The companies already on-board are Waitrose, Co-op, Lidl, Spar, Boots, Marks and Spencer, Post Office, BP, Costa Coffee, Starbucks, LePain Quotidien, Wagamama, Nandos, KFC, Pret A Manger, Subway, McDonald’s, the Trainline, Transport for London and Liberty.
For online payments they include Addison Lee, Argos, British Airways, Domino’s, EasyJet, Hailo, Hungryhouse, Just Eat, Lastminute.com, Miss Selfridge, Ocado, Topshop and Zara.
