“Following the launch of Apple Pay in the US last year, the service has today arrived in the UK, allowing iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and Apple Watch owners to make contactless payments with their devices at over 250,000 locations,” Liam Tung reports for CNET.
“Besides Apple itself, retailers that will support Apple Pay at launch include Boots, BP, Costa Coffee, KFC, Liberty, Lidl, Marks and Spencer, McDonalds, Nandos, Pret, Spar, Starbucks, Subway, Wagamama, and Waitrose,” Tung reports. “Transport for London and the Post Office will also be accepting Apple Pay payments, and more retailers will be added soon, Apple said.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Congrats, Apple and Apple Pay! May more countries come online soon.
have it set up on my phone and watch. Just need to find somewhere to use it now.
Was slightly stumped at first as I had to change region from Isle of Man to UK to get the “add card” option so I could add my Isle of Man Bank cards
Woke up this morning and first thing I did was to try to enter my cards into Passbook.
My main credit card doesn’t working yet but another does and so does my bank debit card.
Setup was real easy and so off I trotted to town to try it out. First shop I came to, my local paper shop, doesn’t do contactless so I decided to get a tea in Costa. I felt myself getting excited and a little nervous in the que. I asked for a tea and some crisps then asked if they take contactless as I thought they wouldn’t have heard of Pay. The manager heard me and leaned over to say “We take Apple Pay too”, he must have seen me holding my phone ready as I waited to be served. I held my phone to the terminal and in a second it was complete. It was a like little bit of Apple magic. The manager bought my tea over and we had a little chat. He had set his cards up in the morning and had actually paid for a customers coffee so he could see it working.
I finished my tea and went off to Boots to try it there next. The guy at the till hadn’t heard of Pay so I told him I was paying with Contactless. When I held my Phone to the terminal and payed he exclaimed “Wow, that’s cool!”.
Finally, I got some food at Marks & Spencer’s. This time I didn’t mention Pay but just waved my phone and said I’d pay with that. The lady behind the till looked at me strangely so I sad “Apple Pay?”. Again she hadn’t heard of it so I told her to do Contactless and once more held my phone to the terminal. She was mightly impressed so was the customer behind me.
All in all it was a great experience. Apple has made it very easy to setup and use. The only fly in the ointment is in two of the three shops I went into they hadn’t heard of Pay , though payment worked fine when I explained it to them. I think Apple and the retailers that are accepting it should make their staff more aware of Pay but I suppose they will quickly learn.
Great story, thanks
My local pub accepts Bitcoin, so I’m hoping to try Apple Pay there on Friday.
Costa emailed me this morning to tell me they are ready to take Apple Pay. Sadly I’m not ready to upgrade my 5s, or buy a Watch (I’ve not worn a watch of any kind on my wrist since 1989)