Merchants in the United Kingdom are preparing their shops and wares for the launch of Apple Pay this fall, but they have some extra work to do if they want to make the big sales.
Apple Pay U.K. will come with a £20 per transaction limit unless shop owners have the latest gear on their counters.
“Apple Pay allows your customers to make easy and secure contactless payments at any amount,” Apple’s FAQ for U.K. sellers says. “If your payment terminal or payment provider doesn’t support the latest network specifications, as with contactless debit and credit cards today, your customers might need to insert their card if the transaction amount is over £20.”
The cap, which is equivalent to about $31, means that British Apple Pay users should check their spending. And unless they need a new Apple Remote or a red iPod Touch loop, they aren’t going to be using the touchless pay method for Apple Gear.
Photo: Apple
“To accept Apple Pay for transactions over £20, your payment terminal must be capable and configured properly, and your payment provider needs to support the latest network contactless specifications,” Apple says, meaning that it falls on merchants and their banks to establish compliance.
The cap will certainly be temporary, but it may not impress many big spenders in the opening days of availability.
Evan Killham is a freelance writer who lives in Nebraska and isn’t interested in football, so he has plenty of time to play and think about video games. He has written for Bitmob and GamesBeat and sometimes, he even goes outside. But not too often because he’s heard there are bees out there. Occasionally, companies send free units for review. Evan subscribes to Cult of Mac’s Reviews Policy and also does not keep the items he receives for possible coverage.
8 responses to “UK Apple Pay comes up short at the cash register”
Just as a FYI, but this cap is not on Apple pay but all contactless payment in most European countries. The reason is because under this threshold, no PIN is required at all. You can of course pay over this threshold with contactless method, however that requires you to enter your pin. And this is what doesn’t work with most terminals, since the authentication process with Apple Pay is done on the phone (TouchID) instead of the terminal. New terminals can accept this authorisation, a bit older (talking about the most widespread, 1.2 years old devices) can not.
Thanks for this. Do some research, CoM !
Coming up short? At least we’ll be able to use Apple Pay at a lot more retailers than in the U.S.
If anything we’re at an advantage.
If you are searching for extra income of about $50 to $300 every day for doing work over internet from comfort of your home for few h daily then this may interest you…
I echo Tremper’s comment too. Contactless payments [unfortunately] have always had this cap. But, it is increasing to £30 in September which helps.
I use contactless with my current Banks Debit Card all the time, so I really can’t see this cap stopping people using Apple Pay in the UK.
Although, what might damage Apple Pay adoption, are posts like this that are spinning the truth ever so slightly.
Totally agree. This cap comes as no surprise to us in the UK and I’ll still use Apple Pay frequently. CoM can be so infuriating with some of their stupid articles.
You’re right; the cap is no surprise to us here in the UK as it’s a security measure that’s been around ever since contactless payments arrived here. It would be nice to have it removed, but at the same time it is being upped to £30 this September and you can’t really argue the fact that if you loose your card it makes someone picking it up and splurging much more difficult.
From what I understand, Apple Pay here in the UK will be limitless for Pay partners with the logo on their terminals. For those without it, the standard £20 cap will apply the same as with regular cards today. Not 100% sure about the limitless part for partners though, so don’t quote me on that…