“Apple Pay launched in the U.K. Tuesday, the first time that Apple Inc.’s much-touted mobile payments system has been seen outside the U.S.,” Geoffrey Smith reports for Fortune.
“Now, you might be thinking that the curmudgeonly, Olde Worlde Brits might not go for all the hype and ballyhoo that attends the typical Apple launch,” Smith reports. “But you’d be mistaken. Albion was positively submerged in a wave of hyperbole.”
Quite impressed with this #ApplePay
— Morry (@weemorry) July 14, 2015
“After the sheer thrill of the novelty, the next biggest pleasure the launch afforded the average Brit was the opportunity to indulge his favorite pastime: moaning about his bank,” Smith reports. “Barclays plc, which has its own rival contactless payment system, Lloyds Banking Group plc and HSBC plc, which ducked out of being one of Apple’s ‘launch partners’ at short notice, were called out in no uncertain terms.”
Come on #Barclays and #Lloyds, why have you not supported #ApplePay on UK launch. Not good enough. #lookforanotherbank
— Jason Murphy (@thejmurphster) July 14, 2015
Smith reports, “(Barclays was shamed into saying that it would after all support ApplePay “in the future” by lunchtime in London.)”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Welcome to the future, Britain!
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
Barclays? Lloyds? Come on CANADIAN banks and regulators. Stop being such dickheads, demanding customer information, and whining to and dining business-friendly MPs and get a move on. Canada’s banks are shameful and so behind-the-times.
Don’t you guys have non-profit credit unions? If not, get some as your banks need competition.
yeah agree , canada is sometimes slow.
Canada has ‘tap’ chip credit cards for many years already and they are convenient but way less secure than Apple Pay (you can lose the chip card and people can use just use it by tapping)
But my biggest gripe is Phone Data rates are absurdly expensive…
I’ve banked with Lloyds for 23 years.
Today I signed up with Halifax.
Which doesn’t support it either. I’m pretty sure it uses the same computer systems as Lloyds and TSB as well.
Big win… you know LLoyds own Halifax right?
They all own each other.
Olde Worlde Brits! Thank you country boy. What you might not know is that Britain is the highest buyer on the internet of any country in the world, followed by the Australians – good old American boys are not even third. Bit surprising when our internet (2mb) is even slower than yours (4mb). You just have another beer and go give your auntie one. Try not to read something to complicated for you cousin (wife?) ya hear?
Yeah – we’ve been doing chip n pin for years. Yanks still have a pen no wonder its seen as such a big step.
You have to forgive them their world doesn’t extend much beyond their own borders as many an embarrassing news report has ably shown of late.
Yes the interest is not bad for a country that produced the first TV, the first colour TV the first Computer, the blue laser and countless other inventions that at one time represented a third of the value of the American economy and built much of modern life as we know it. Only fools under estimate the capabilities of the rest of the World for Sooner or later it will be them who will be ridiculed. Welcome to THAT future.
I’m a Yank, and I do agree with you that we tend to have a “Warholian” world view.
Still, no one does pompous as well as you guys. Tally ho!
Tally ho?
Don’t you mean Hee Haw?
😉
Actually the Brits invented the first computer and the Internet. Alan Turing made a computer to crack the codes in WWII. CEEFAX was a baby Internet In the 1970’s. It gave you news, weather and booked flight tickets over the TV network. The short comings with Britain is that they are quite happy to let their inventions get to the US and have it develop into a full fledged industry that goes on to change the world. And the US is very good at claiming things other people have developed an calling it their own US invention.
Riiight? Don’t even get me started on the antikythira mechanism, like, it’s so awesome and all…
+1
No, you have it wrong. It’s the Russians that claim to have invented everything first.
bullocks!
I think you need “bollocks”.
Bullock is a diminutive of bull, as in male cattle.
But Bullocks was a major department store chain in the western United States. I think they were acquired and subsumed by Macy’s.
Maybe I’m reading your posts wrong, but you and spyinthesyuk, seem to implying that the article is insulting to Britain and the damn, ignorant Yanks are to blame. I just want to note that the article’s author is a London-based, Oxford educated writer/editor. A Brit wrote this article. Doctors, heal thyselves. Now, if I knew where to look, I’d show you on a map where London is. 😉
Annoyed that my HSBC card won’t work yet. Did Apple punish them for revealing the launch date early? However my HSBC card already is contactless (and had been for years, which might surprise the author of this article) and it’s in my wallet in my pocket all day, so it’s just the novelty value of Apple Pay that appeals to me. If Apple Pay didn’t have the same £20 restriction (increasing to £30 soon) then that would make the difference. I like the contactless limit on my card because if I lost it anyone can just tap the card to pay for anything, so restricting to £30 is good for security and peace of mind. But with Apple Pay it will need my fingerprint, plus I can actually locate my phone if I leave it somewhere unlike a card. So hurry the F up HSBC!
Where a retailer accepts PAY, there is NO LIMIT to the size of the transaction – you can buy a Mac in an Store.
Where they do NOT accept apple pay, but have contactless, you can still use it but there is a limit of £20 (increasing to £30)
Clearly the Yanks have a thing or two to learn about us Brits. Nothing old fashioned here. Chip and pin has been here for years. Look outside your own country Americans. Open your eyes and look at what is happening outside your motherland.
Note my comment above. The article was written by an Oxford educated, London-based writer/editor. Take it up with him.
I didn’t know Brits “go wild” over anything that isn’t soccer.
Bring up Yorktown with one of their diplomats
Yay. No more stupid RFC cards being activated and their data ripped off by any old passing granny with reader. Why RFC cards were ever allowed to exist is beyond my comprehension. The damned things have to be kept in a Faraday cage if you want any actual card security. That’s outright bad technology. RFC card tech can’t die fast enough.
For those who don’t understand why RFC cards suck, please read this article at Wikipedia, especially the section on SHIELDING:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-frequency_identification
Apologies for my usual hatred and mashing of acronyms. Here are the proper names:
RFID: Radio Frequency Identification
NFC: Near-Field Communication
RFC = My mashup to mean Radio Frequency Communication, which isn’t helpful.
CMBA = Call me back again
Yay. Some troll dinged me down. Predictable.
Happy me:
My bank is now offering RFID/NFC cards that require NO shielding. They work similar to Apple’s system by only triggering a request of a single sales ID. I’ll be digging into the details later. But the result is that mean old grannies triggering the cards with their readers get nothing useful. No ID. No account #. No nothing of any use for robbery or forgery. That’s the way to do it.