Apple Pay today makes its debut in the United Kingdom, nine months after it launched in the U.S., and it has been greeted by plenty of support from local banks. Those with a supported device can register their credit and debit cards now through the Passbook app on iOS.
Apple Pay is available at more than 250,000 retailers throughout England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland that accept contactless payments, but you’ll need a device with NFC to use it.
Those with NFC include the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus, and Apple Watches connected to an iPhone 6, 6 Plus, iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, and iPhone 5s. Apple Pay can also be used to make in-app purchases on these devices — and on an iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3.
A long list of banks and credit card companies will be supporting Apple Pay in the U.K., but not all will be available immediately. Those that are available at launch include American Express, MBNA, Nationwide, NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Santander, and Ulster Bank.
Those that will support Apple Pay in the U.K. later on include Bank of Scotland, First Direct, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, M&S Bank, and TSB. Barclays has also announced it will support the service “in the future,” despite its apparent decision not to initially.
We are really excited about the launch of Apple Pay and will bring Barclays debit cards and Barclaycard credit cards to Apple Pay in future.
— Barclays UK (@BarclaysUK) July 14, 2015
Apple Pay first arrived in the U.S. last October with support from 220,000 retailers, and in its first three days of availability, more than 1 million credit cards were registered. The service is expected to be just as popular in the U.K., where NFC payment terminals are already commonplace.
However, U.K. customers will find that just like other contactless payment services, Apple Pay can only be used for transactions up to £20 in most locations. Retailers that allow payments above that limit include Apple, Boots, H&M, Jack & Jones, Louis Vuitton, Marks & Spencer, Vodafone, Pandora, and others.
Killian Bell is a freelance writer based in the U.K. He has an interest in all things tech and also covers Android over at CultofAndroid.com. You can follow him on Twitter via @killianbell.
9 responses to “Apple Pay arrives in the U.K. with plenty of support from local banks”
Anyone else having trouble adding cards to the Passbook app? Doesn’t look like anything has changed.
I can’t add cards either, but I bank with First Direct and I guess even though they’re signed up, they are not doing so on launch day, as it says in the article. Bit frustrating…
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Added an American Express card with no hiccups.
I just managed to add both my UK Nationwide credit and debit cards along with my MBNA MasterCard. I can confirm that Tesco MasterCard and Barclarcard don’t jet work.
The ability to add cards seemed to be turned on a couple of hours ago. I was able to add my NatWest debit card. NatWest then sent me a verification code by text, but I get an error when trying to add the code to my card in Passbook.
There has been mix responses to the Apple Pay at the initial level. It seems the Britishers has got a cue from the Americans who were excited at first, but didn’t like it later on.
It needs time, I guess in 5 years people will not want to be without it.
It’s practical, you don’t need extra cards and the security is much better ….
Yes most banks have signed up and allowing their customers to use Apple pay. However, most banks for example Natwest have restricted the use of apple pay to particular card holders. Majority of customers who possess a basic, adapt or business account are not allowed to use apply pay which is highly frustrating.