Apple Pay Apple Pay in Germany

[4254126]

You can’t use the workaround anymore to set it up, but the ones that have set it up on time, those still work.

Nope, bunq still works

I set up a new account recently and then added both the Maestro and MasterCard to Apple Pay (see attachment). There is only a TINY workaround which works reliably - you'll find it on the internet. The great thing is I have a physical card, a proper account for bank transfers and Maestro/MC which helps with availability. You get a one month trial, you can always downgrade to a free service and upgrade back to premium. 7,99€ / month is quite steep, but one needs some pleasures in life

EDIT: So we have boon (FR/IR), KBC (IR) and now bunq with a regular German account as easy solutions. Or any other bank that you can get an account with and offers Apple Pay. Some are reporting that ordering N26 replacement cards to a French address (or changing just the country to France) gets you Apple Pay as well. I don't have an account there so can't test it.

 

[Ney]

You can’t use the workaround anymore to set it up, but the ones that have set it up on time, those still work.

You still can get working Apple-Pay bunq cards. - you just have to use the old "n26" trick


i got mine at the first weeks of april and they work fine

 

[MLVC]

Nope, bunq still works

I set up a new account recently and then added both the Maestro and MasterCard to Apple Pay (see attachment). There is only a TINY workaround which works reliably - you'll find it on the internet. The great thing is I have a physical card, a proper account for bank transfers and Maestro/MC which helps with availability. You get a one month trial, you can always downgrade to a free service and upgrade back to premium. 7,99€ / month is quite steep, but one needs some pleasures in life

EDIT: So we have boon (FR/IR), KBC (IR) and now bunq with a regular German account as easy solutions. Or any other bank that you can get an account with and offers Apple Pay. Some are reporting that ordering N26 replacement cards to a French address (or changing just the country to France) gets you Apple Pay as well. I don't have an account there so can't test it.

I actually meant without workaround, like it was possible for one morning really

 

[michelmike]

Anyways i dont think anyone knows why they wont relase it in Germany and the Netherlands.

You still can get working Apple-Pay bunq cards. - you just have to use the old "n26" trick

https://bunq.love/de/faq-de/so-bestellst-du-eine-applepay-kompatible-bunq-karte/ look there.

i got mine at the first weeks of april and they work fine

Hmm i guess i should have done the same when i set up N26 in the first week of April... I was scared that my account could have been banned.

 

[Tobsen]

And this particular IBAN is a DE one because boon. is operated by wirecard and that is a German bank.

Btw if you use fake data to open a boon. account you will not be able to upgrade because they will want you to send your ID and a prove of adress.

Do you a proof, that all boon customers get a German IBAN?

Why should I use fake data, boon accepts my German address an ID?!

 

[Ney]

. Some are reporting that ordering N26 replacement cards to a French address (or changing just the country to France) gets you Apple Pay as well. I don't have an account there so can't test it.

Just changing the country to an French Adress should get you an account bann. - but ye - its said that if you send it to a real adress it will work. Something like a forwarding service like borderlinx should do the trick.

 

[4254126]

Cool news: According to Twitter, Revolut announced at their #revrally they’re launching Apple Pay in France... will be interesting to see how the separation works with different customers as they don’t differentiate between countries with their cards. Workaround incoming?

 

[Alanin]

As far as I know revolut is saying that they support Apple Pay in the next week for at least 1.5 years now...

 

[renssies]

You still can get working Apple-Pay bunq cards. - you just have to use the old "n26" trick

[link removed] look there.

i got mine at the first weeks of april and they work fine

They do indeed work fine, but everyone, please try to keep this trick away from the media! As soon as it hits the media this will likely be blocked again.

 

[SenileBooster]

Do you a proof, that all boon customers get a German IBAN?

Why should I use fake data, boon accepts my German address an ID?!

I was not my intention to say that you used fake data. Better would have been the use of „one“ instead of „you“.

And there are still people out there thinking they need to fake to get an „foreign“ boon. account.

I don’t know about all boon. users but in the end it doesn’t matter at all. The IBAN is only for getting money into the account.

 

[Mr-Fly]

I never used the iban to Topup, I only Topup by my German credit card. That's fast and reliable. Immediate transfer, no wait.
I even use it with Auto Topup.

 

[Ney]

They do indeed work fine, but everyone, please try to keep this trick away from the media! As soon as it hits the media this will likely be blocked again.

Got you - removed the link from my post

 

[4254126]

Very interesting...

Consorsbank on Twitter: "...die Bedingungen für den Vertrieb von Apple Pay, werden aktuell zwischen Apple und den deutschen Banken verhandelt. Apple bietet diesen Service derzeit in Deutschland nicht an. Ob es zu einer Kooperation kommt, wissen wir aktuell noch nicht." - 02.05.2018, 5:10pm

Source: https://twitter.com/consorsbank/status/991696529487429632

Why would someone from a social media team write something like that if it weren't true... Some banks must see an opportunity to move into the market here. Now yes, Apple Pay costs money for marketing and each transaction (depending on how the negotiations go - some Canadian banks apparently pay a flat fee per card added). But developing your own payment system costs lots of time and money. Some banks like ING, Consors, Commerzbank can surely use adding Google Pay or Apple Pay as a great marketing feature and literally only having to provide the backend to this system. We'll see...

Adding to that: "Sie wissen ja, dass wir in verschiedenen anderen Ländern vertreten sind, wie Frankreich und Italien, wo unsere Kunden bereits Apple Pay verwenden können, und dass wir auch dadurch die volle technische Bereitschaft haben, um Apple Play in jedem unserer Länder an den Start zu bringen. Es hängt allein von Apple ab, wann Deutschland startet, wir sind ready." - Valentin Stalf, CEO of N26, Interview on 02.05.2018 / Source: https://www.it-finanzmagazin.de/2-jahre-5-millionen-n26-kunden-69614/

I believe him when he says that. Why wouldn't N26 want to launch Apple Pay in all of the countries they're in. For Ireland Apple has possibly negotiated that the Bank of Ireland get's access before others (such as N26). For Germany Apple is stalling the start of Apple Pay to see if they can negotiate a deal (with exclusivity as in Brazil - 1 launch bank!) with a larger German bank. If not they can still fall back on N26, boon, bunq and maybe American Express.

 

[Tobsen]

So, comdirect also comments on the situation:

https://twitter.com/comdirect/status/991924559938015232

"An uns liegt es nicht, dass Apple Pay nicht startet. Darüber entscheidet ganz alleine Apple. Das gleiche gilt übrigens auch für Google. Wenn der Start in Deutschland erfolgt, werden wir die Situation natürlich aufmerksam beobachten. /MU"

 

[docfred]

Suprise suprise....

 

[michelmike]

So, comdirect also comments on the situation:

https://twitter.com/comdirect/status/991924559938015232

"An uns liegt es nicht, dass Apple Pay nicht startet. Darüber entscheidet ganz alleine Apple. Das gleiche gilt übrigens auch für Google. Wenn der Start in Deutschland erfolgt, werden wir die Situation natürlich aufmerksam beobachten. /MU"

I dont think a "Support person" knows anything about the situation with Apple... This is just a standard statement and at the end it gets clear that the person is no "insider": "Wenn der Start in Deutschland erfolgt, werden wir die Situation natürlich aufmerksam beobachten". They are a bank they do talk before the launch and they dont just wait for the start and say: "oh okay we can do that!" It doesnt work like that as i understood it.

 

[docfred]

Reads like: „They say, it depends on Apple‘s decision? They must be wrong. Who are they, they have no clue. Apple is the victim.“

 

[MLVC]

I think Apple wants to start with a big player, and the big players are acting hard to get. Eventually they might choose for any of the smaller ones, but I guess there's still prospect on an agreement.

 

[RobaxMan]

UNLIKE a lot of countries, the EU has capped credit card interchange fees so banks have to come to terms with losing more of a smaller pot when signing up with Apple for Apple Pay.

 

[Karma_isA_8itch]

I think Apple wants to start with a big player, and the big players are acting hard to get. Eventually they might choose for any of the smaller ones, but I guess there's still prospect on an agreement.

Do you really believe this? I mean Apple Pay is around for four years by now. There has been more than enough time to get a "big player" on board. But no Apple Pay still. So whys that? The only thing I can think of is that Apple does not want to launch Apple Pay in Germany at all. Just think about it. For evey service in german banks you need to pay extra. Want a bank account? Pay 5 bucks a month. Want a credit card? Pay 25 Bucks a year. Want to use the new instant payments to make super fast bank transfers? Pay 0.25 cents for each transaction. So I dont believe that its about the fee that Apple is going to charge the banks for using Apple Pay. The banks could just go ahead - and im 100 % sure that this is going to happen if Apple Pay ever launches in Germany - and say you want to use Apple Pay then pay me 5 bucks a month and those who would want to use Apple Pay would pay those 5 bucks.

But no big player nor a small bank was able to convince Apple to launch Apple Pay. And I dont think its about market share as well since there are Apple Pay countries that have even less iOS users than germany.

 

[MLVC]

Do you really believe this? I mean Apple Pay is around for four years by now. There has been more than enough time to get a "big player" on board. But no Apple Pay still. So whys that? The only thing I can think of is that Apple does not want to launch Apple Pay in Germany at all. Just think about it. For evey service in german banks you need to pay extra. Want a bank account? Pay 5 bucks a month. Want a credit card? Pay 25 Bucks a year. Want to use the new instant payments to make super fast bank transfers? Pay 0.25 cents for each transaction. So I dont believe that its about the fee that Apple is going to charge the banks for using Apple Pay. The banks could just go ahead - and im 100 % sure that this is going to happen if Apple Pay ever launches in Germany - and say you want to use Apple Pay then pay me 5 bucks a month and those who would want to use Apple Pay would pay those 5 bucks.

But no big player nor a small bank was able to convince Apple to launch Apple Pay. And I dont think its about market share as well since there are Apple Pay countries that have even less iOS users than germany.

It's not Germany I'm talking about, it's also the Benelux and Austria. The situation in the Netherlands is different from Germany, yet our Apple Pay fate seems to be intertwined. I don't think you can put the blame on Apple for 100%. The banks are also to blame.

 

[RobaxMan]

... and say you want to use Apple Pay then pay me 5 bucks a month and those who would want to use Apple Pay would pay those 5 bucks.

Given that Apple Pay is more of a convenience thing, and not much more secure than the physical contactless pay cards - the hell I would pay €5 / month to use it.

 

[Karma_isA_8itch]

Given that Apple Pay is more of a convenience thing, and not much more secure than the physical contactless pay cards - the hell I would pay €5 / month to use it.

1. You dont seem to have the slightest idea how Apple Pay works otherwise you wouldnt compare a contactless card with Apple Pay in the security department. Do you know how easy it is to steal your information from a nfc card if it is not protected with a rfid blocker? 10 seconds and all your data is gone and ready to be used on fake credit cards or the internet.

2. Just look at how many people are going through the effort with boon. and bunq and ARE paying between 1 and 8 € each and every month in order to be able to use Apple Pay. So like I said there are more than enough people willing to pay that extra amount of money just for Apple Pay.

 

[docfred]

Just look at how many people are going through the effort with boon. and bunq and ARE paying between 1 and 8 € each and every month in order to be able to use Apple Pay. So like I said there are more than enough people willing to pay that extra amount of money just for Apple Pay.

So, "how many people" are going this way in Germany? 1000? 2000? This is a solution for some Apple fans and freaks that you meet in the corresponding Apple webboards to talk about.

 

[Karma_isA_8itch]

So, "how many people" are going this way in Germany? 1000? 2000? This is a solution for some Apple fans and freaks that you meet in the corresponding Apple webboards to talk about.

You dont get me do you? I just tried to explain why I dont think that "the fee" is the reason why Apple and the Banks cannot get a agreement. If it would be about the fee, banks could just make you pay the fee. Its that simple. It does not matter how many people would be using Apple Pay at the end of the day or how many would be willing to pay that fee since the banks only need to pay per transaction. No transactions, no fees. If you want to use Apple Pay, you pay the fees to your bank and the bank pays Apple. The banks would not lose any money so no reason to not launch Apple Pay. Even if it ist only 1000 customers you get to switch to your bank because of Apple Pay. Each and every customer has a value that is much higher and not just about Apple Pay. But seems people dont understand that.