Apple Pay in Italy with US Card

[1Zach1]

I'm just wondering if anyone has had luck in Italy, or anywhere in the EU or UK using ApplePay with a US credit card? I am headed over for a while and though it seems logical that anywhere with an NFC terminal should work, I was just looking to see if anyone had actually had success using it?

Thanks,

Zach

 

[AustinIllini]

I'm just wondering if anyone has had luck in Italy, or anywhere in the EU or UK using ApplePay with a US credit card? I am headed over for a while and though it seems logical that anywhere with an NFC terminal should work, I was just looking to see if anyone had actually had success using it?

Thanks,

Zach

Not sure, but I wouldn't count on it

 

[iDuel]

Yes it should work just fine. Before leaving on your trip, make sure you call your bank and report your upcoming travel so that they don't decline your card when you are in Italy.

 

[Closingracer]

It will work 100% in Italy with a merchant that supports Apple Pay. It will have to also be a card payment processor that is accepted at the store as well which means it will most likely have to be a Visa or MasterCard. Amex you might find more then Discover. The issue with using American cards is the fact they have been using EMV for I believe over a decade or at least close to it and if you travel to places outside of tourist areas you probably can't use your magnetic stripe there. The only issue other then acceptance with the card would be the FTF or foreign transaction fee so I would go look for a Capital one card since they are pretty much one of the few banks that offer a card with no FTF's with no annual fee included.

 

[Arrow94]

I spent the past few weeks in Italy and the U.K., and didn't have any luck using Apple Pay. I tried using both a Visa and Discover card on the London Underground and the transactions didn't go through. This happened in other places around London as well. I asked customer service at the London Underground if I could use my U.S. card through contact-less payments and they advised me to not use it for some reason. My guess is that if you have a credit card with Apply Pay that is supported in both the U.S. and the country you are in, it would work. The Visa from my bank and Discover aren't on the official U.K. list on the Apple Pay support page, so I could be totally wrong with that guess, but it was the only thing that made sense to me with the transactions not working at all. From my experience, Italy had very few NFC terminals, at least where I was. So do feel free to see if you have any better luck, but that was at least what I saw happen very recently.

 

[1Zach1]

(Sorry for being in the wrong section, thanks for moving it Mods)

It will work 100% in Italy with a merchant that supports Apple Pay. It will have to also be a card payment processor that is accepted at the store as well which means it will most likely have to be a Visa or MasterCard. Amex you might find more then Discover. The issue with using American cards is the fact they have been using EMV for I believe over a decade or at least close to it and if you travel to places outside of tourist areas you probably can't use your magnetic stripe there. The only issue other then acceptance with the card would be the FTF or foreign transaction fee so I would go look for a Capital one card since they are pretty much one of the few banks that offer a card with no FTF's with no annual fee included.

Yeah it's a Chase Visa with no FTF and a chip, so even if ApplePay doesn't work I'm not worried, was just hoping to use it for the convenience.

I spent the past few weeks in Italy and the U.K., and didn't have any luck using Apple Pay. I tried using both a Visa and Discover card on the London Underground and the transactions didn't go through. This happened in other places around London as well. I asked customer service at the London Underground if I could use my U.S. card through contact-less payments and they advised me to not use it for some reason. My guess is that if you have a credit card with Apply Pay that is supported in both the U.S. and the country you are in, it would work. The Visa from my bank and Discover aren't on the official U.K. list on the Apple Pay support page, so I could be totally wrong with that guess, but it was the only thing that made sense to me with the transactions not working at all. From my experience, Italy had very few NFC terminals, at least where I was. So do feel free to see if you have any better luck, but that was at least what I saw happen very recently.

I'm hoping since it's a Visa CC I will have better luck, but it sounds like it could be very hit or miss.

Thanks for the replies everyone!

 

[Böhme417]

I spent the past few weeks in Italy and the U.K., and didn't have any luck using Apple Pay. I tried using both a Visa and Discover card on the London Underground and the transactions didn't go through. This happened in other places around London as well. I asked customer service at the London Underground if I could use my U.S. card through contact-less payments and they advised me to not use it for some reason. My guess is that if you have a credit card with Apply Pay that is supported in both the U.S. and the country you are in, it would work. The Visa from my bank and Discover aren't on the official U.K. list on the Apple Pay support page, so I could be totally wrong with that guess, but it was the only thing that made sense to me with the transactions not working at all. From my experience, Italy had very few NFC terminals, at least where I was. So do feel free to see if you have any better luck, but that was at least what I saw happen very recently.

I can't speak about Italy, as when I was there last (~4 years ago), I didn't have any contactless forms of payment. Since I wasn't really looking, I didn't notice if places accepted NFC payments.

The UK is a different story. As I've posted in another thread, using my US cards (VI, MC, and AX) through Apple Pay was almost flawless. Contactless payments are much more widely accepted there, and everywhere that had contactless terminals worked with my Apple Pay. I also used Apple Pay on my Apple Watch on the underground.

 

[yg17]

I have successfully used ApplePay in Ireland, Australia and New Zealand when it was US only. There's no reason it shouldn't work on NFC enabled terminals in Italy.

 

[BSben]

I used my UK credit card today with ApplePay at Aldi Nord in Germany, it worked smoothly, just like in the UK.

 

[BSben]

After the successful transactions at Aldi Nord I tried Aple pay at Lidl in Germany. It first seemed to work, the phone gave the typical signs of a successful transaction, but then the terminal encountered a 'system error'. I had to pay with cash in the end, and the original amount later showed as refunded on my phone. I only tried it once at Lidl, but it seems in Germany it is hit and miss at the moment.

 

[1Zach1]

Well I am back. I only saw 3 NFC terminals between Pisa, Florence, and Sorrento, none of them worked with ApplePay when I tried but I don't believe it was the ApplePay/Card, just that the terminals themselves weren't set up for tap to pay.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[jamesdmc]

Good information. I'm going there in June. Rome and Milan mostly. If the opportunity arises I'll give it a shot, but I'll keep my expectations low.

 

[dougc]

Good information. I'm going there in June. Rome and Milan mostly. If the opportunity arises I'll give it a shot, but I'll keep my expectations low.

FWIW, all trenitalia kiosks accept capital one enabled apple pay.

 

[MarcoPohlo]

One problem though, most European terminals do not accept American Express cards no matter if it's through Apple Pay or directly used (and who should blame them anyway). But for Visa, MasterCard you should be fine almost everywhere.

 

[Böhme417]

One problem though, most European terminals do not accept American Express cards no matter if it's through Apple Pay or directly used (and who should blame them anyway). But for Visa, MasterCard you should be fine almost everywhere.

There are also many retailers that do accept amex but not through Apple Pay. I've run into that a few times.

 

[Ray2]

Works just fine in Switzerland. Not sure about Italy. In spite of the time I spend there, I don't recall ever using ApplePay. US account, US card.

 

[neil_cm17]

I had heard that US issued Visa cards will not work on the London underground due to it not supporting some offline functionality that is required by the card reader.