“Canada’s adoption of contactless payment technology makes it a promising market for Apple Pay, the mobile wallet app that has seen sluggish growth in the U.S. in part because of a lack of updated retail terminals, industry experts said Tuesday,” Michael Lewis reports for The Toronto Star.
“‘Canada is attractive for Apple Pay,’ said Greg Weed, director of card performance research at New York-based consulting and research firm Phoenix International. ‘It’s small but important for Apple in terms of showing how to build usage,'” Lewis reports. “Weed said the advantage for Apple Pay here is that most major retailers have a payment terminal designed to accept PIN-and-chip cards and NFC or so- called contactless payments.”
“Canada began adopting the newer technology about three years ago, but the U.S. is in the midst of a payment system migration and continues to lag,” Lewis reports. “China is the big prize, Weed said, but Canada is a piece of global puzzle that can act as a marketing demonstration case ‘that sorts out some of the problems they’ve had in building volume in the states.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Canada has some of the most beautiful places in the world – and now they have the world’s best contactless payment system, too! With the infrastructure already largely in place and now with Apple Pay expanding well beyond just American Express cards, the sky’s the limit for Apple Pay in Canada.
SEE ALSO:
Canadian banks, including ‘the Big Five,’ sign on for major Apple Pay expansion – May 10, 2016
Apples’ revolutionary Apple Pay expands to Canada and Australia – November 17, 2015
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Ian K.” for the heads up.]
Someone praised Samsung Pay for offering backwards compatibility with swipe readers, and that was the reason it was enjoying rapid growth in the US.
I pointed out that what they were actually saying was that Samsung’s holding America back with an older, far less secure system.
I’ve been using ApplePay with my Amex for quite a while at all the staples (Beer Store, LCBO, Tim Horton’s, Longo’s, Wahlburger’s) but there are a few who don’t take Amex. I have found restaurants, despite using the handheld card readers, don’t like it. I think it’s because of the tip.
Every time I use ApplePay I get comments about how easy it is. Now my CIBC card will work and I’m really excited. I wish more places around home in Michigan had the ability to accept it.
I’ve had the same at restaurants – the machines don’t allow for tap payment (with card of Apple Pay) AND adding a tip.
card OR* Apple Pay
Canada adopted the ‘chip’ card several years ago, but Apple Pay has eluded us. … Till now. I’ll be very happy to begin using ApplePay as soon as BMO gets on board. 🙂
Add Coast Capital to the list of late to the party.
They seem surprised by it. “We can appreciate the excitement around this very new technology. Please accept our apologies, we do not have any additional information at this time.”
Have been using Apple Pay here in Vancouver BC , with the watch for about a year and the limitation was not the availability of appropriate terminals but rather the number of merchants that accept Amex cards .
The banking system in Canada is different in that the big 5 own virtually the entire market which means that ApplePay could become nearly universally available very soon . RBC is the largest bank and my Visa card worked with AP yesterday .
MDN is entirely correct- we do have places of exceptional beauty and with your strong US dollar Americans get a lot of bang for their buck up here .
Just went to install an app on my phone and the biggest trending app in the Canada store is RBC Wallet which is required to use Apple Pay in Canada !! Must be a lot of people who have been waiting for this
MDN should get out more. “World’s best” usually means best in the world. Not “your world”. Ever been downunder MDN?
Having had my card# skimmed/stolen twice, I can’t wait for the increased levels of authentication. Been holding off on a new iphone, but I’ll upgrade from my trusty ol’ 4S to an SE as soon as the new 7 models are released.
This is why Apple should have included Canada in their initial launch of Apple Pay – the infrastructure has already been in place for some time. Also limiting the initial rollout to just Amex cards was stupid – many merchants don’t take Amex because their interchange fees for merchants are the highest. So using Apple Pay so far has been something with only limited availability.
Terminals that take chip and RFID cards are nearly everywhere. Some of the banks have lagged in issuing RFID debit cards because those cards are more expensive to produce but that’s going to change very soon. And Canadians are the biggest users of debit transactions (direct from your bank account) in the world. So we are ripe for Apple Pay done right.
It was the Canadian banks that delayed Apple Pay. It was only available through non-affiliated AMEX cards prior.
Apple Pay via ANZ Bank has been available for about 4 weeks now in Australia. Who knows what fee arrangements Apple came to with ANZ though. Apple Pay its all working well. I’ve done about 10 transactions so far without a problem. To the anazement of the cashier.
We have had the NFC (PayWave) terminals here for a few years now if you were prepared to trust the under $100 transaction to proceed without a pin number.
As the banks refused to provide a non NFC version of their card, I simply shone the iPhone torch LED light through the edge of their bankcard & located the antennae wire & drilled a small hole through it.
Easy…. PayWave disabled and secure from passers by.