“Apple’s year-old mobile-payments service is expanding to more countries, banks and merchants,” Anick Jesdanun reports for The Associated Press. “Apple Pay is available in Canada starting Tuesday and in Australia on Thursday. Those are two countries where “tap” payments — tapping a phone or chip-embedded card to the store’s payment machine — are already more common than in the U.S. In those countries, however, Apple Pay is limited initially to American Express cards.”
“In the U.S., where Apple Pay started in October 2014, the service will expand Tuesday to more than 100 additional card issuers — mostly smaller banks and credit unions,” Jesdanun reports. “Apple Pay already accepts Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover cards from most major banks. In the U.K., Tesco and TSB banks will join Apple Pay on Tuesday.”
“Jennifer Bailey, Apple’s vice president for Apple Pay, said the company is starting with American Express in Canada and Australia because it’s both the card issuer and the payment-network operator, so coordination is easier,” Jesdanun reports. “Meanwhile, Apple is working with makers of various payment machines to bring tapping capabilities to additional merchants, small and large. When Apple Pay launched, the U.S. had 200,000 tap-capable machines. That’s expected to surpass 1.5 million this year. The growth includes about 100,000 small to medium-sized merchants each month, Apple said.”
“Apple said Tuesday that Cinnabon will add Apple Pay to all its U.S. locations next year, while Domino’s company-owned pizza stores will get it by year’s end,” Jesdanun reports. “Chili’s is installing tablets at tables so people can order and pay right there, starting in the spring.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Mmm, Cinnabon. The heroin of pastries.
Tim Cook was off by a year. 2016 will be the year of Apple Pay.
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So far, Tim Cook’s ‘Year of Apple Pay’ has been rather underwhelming – October 5, 2015
It is a rather pathetic ‘roll out’ in Canada. The big Canadian banks are dragging their heels on this one because, according to my own bank (RBC), Apple is too greedy and won’t provide the entire service for free and pay them for the privilege of doing it as well. The US banks all agreed that paying a small percentage for Apple doing the work was fair and a small transaction fee was also justified. Apple has the best customers and our stupid banks would rather shun them and try to introduce their own version of CurrentC, the failed Walmart scheme for the clueless and ignorant.
You are entirely correct . My understanding is that Apple wants 15 basis points which is 15 cents for every $100 spent – a very small fraction indeed and tiny in comparison to what the card companies collect . i personally had $1500 of fraudulent charges on my RBC Visa last month and went to speak to my bank manager about this . Amazingly RBC supports Google wallet but not Apple Pay. That says it all. These banks care nothing about their customers security and are willing to spend serious $ to keep Apple out . I filed a complaint with the bank ombudsman and encourage any other concerned Canadian to do the same .
Yes, you could file a complaint. But it would probably be even more effective to get and use an AMEX card and stop using your RBC Visa. RBC et al will eventually get the message…
Damn fine idea! I don’t use AMEX but if my credit/bank doesn’t get on board real fast, I’ll do just that to make the point. As they say … Money talks.
What drives me nuts are the number or shops I visit that have card machines that are capable of accepting chip cards, and in many cases look like they support NFC too, yet don’t have either option turned on. What the hell’s the problem?
Also: it’s always worth trying Apple Pay at a store when you visit for the first time, even if it looks like they don’t take it. Bob Evans restaurants recently upgraded to new self-service card machines. There are no NFC symbols on the machine or any indication that they take wireless payments, but I held up my iPhone anyway, just being silly, and what do you know? It lit up and charged my meal.
——RM