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Launching on Independence Day? Can't see that happening myself but stranger things have happened!

Kind of hope it launches with the third beta release of iOS 9.

From a post by one of the mods on NatWest's Forums and Ideas section of their site (posted yesterday):
  • The live date will be announced by Apple shortly and from that date you will see the option to add a card to Apple Pay in Passbook. You will be able to start adding your cards as soon as that happens.

I had been suspicious that the date was perhaps coded into iOS 8.4 so tried changing my phone's date to August but it didn't cause the option to appear (with region set to UK).
 
Even though I understand how complex these kind of projects can be, which is what leads them to hedge on the exact release date, the terms, "coming soon" and "announced shortly" are still annoying. Perhaps because, "soon" and "shortly" always seem to represent a much longer span of time, than most of us would instinctively think of.
 
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I had been suspicious that the date was perhaps coded into iOS 8.4 so tried changing my phone's date to August but it didn't cause the option to appear (with region set to UK).


even if that were true, it would only make the apple pay option appear for UK users without them switching the region to US, so you can already work around that. The problem is when you go to add a card and accept the terms and conditions, you get a "contact your card issuer" message.
 
I hope it arrives tomorrow, but somehow I don't see it happening on a Saturday.
 
The card issuers/apples UK Apple pay servers probably aren't online yet. US Apple employees will have to be on standby just incase of any hiccups, for that reason i can't see it being tomorrow. Tuesday (any weekday) allows a staggered sign up so less stress on this new services servers. All first day banks will probably have the highest traffic they've ever had.

Even Apple struggles when they release a new OS and they are built for this stuff. All these banks aren't.

But saying that, Banks/Apple could you please release tomorrow as my watch and phone and I are ready and waiting to spend less than £20 via NFC.
 
I had been suspicious that the date was perhaps coded into iOS 8.4 so tried changing my phone's date to August but it didn't cause the option to appear (with region set to UK).

I tried this myself and it didn't work. I'll just keep watching this thread and see what gets posted over the next few weeks.
 
I just noticed that Apple's website actually states apple pay will work with these places, and anywhere else that accepts contactless payments. We already knew the tech was compatible, so really anywhere is fair game, unless they pull a US consortium on us and specifically refuse apple pay transactions.

THE PLOT THICKENS.

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I just noticed that Apple's website actually states apple pay will work with these places, and anywhere else that accepts contactless payments. We already knew the tech was compatible, so really anywhere is fair game, unless they pull a US consortium on us and specifically refuse apple pay transactions.

THE PLOT THICKENS.

What? Apple Pay is just contactless under another name. In the US stores have been disabling all contactless to prevent Apple Pay being used (a bit like Sainsbury's disabled all contactless readers a few months ago in preparation for the "ZAPP" wallet launching next year).
 
I just noticed that Apple's website actually states apple pay will work with these places, and anywhere else that accepts contactless payments. We already knew the tech was compatible, so really anywhere is fair game, unless they pull a US consortium on us and specifically refuse apple pay transactions.

THE PLOT THICKENS.

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I don't believe it's possible specifically refuse apple pay transactions, to prevent customers from using apple pay one would have to completely disable one's own contactless payment functionality instore, which (I'm sure someone can correct me if I'm wrong) has happened in a few places in the US, including Walmart-owned ASDA closer to home.
 
What? Apple Pay is just contactless under another name. In the US stores have been disabling all contactless to prevent Apple Pay being used (a bit like Sainsbury's disabled all contactless readers a few months ago in preparation for the "ZAPP" wallet launching next year).
^Sainsburys too I guess, beat me to it.
 
Well the good news is that I think there are only 4 banks we need to worry about - Santander, HSBC, Nationwide and RBS. (The others are all owned by RBS)
You forgot about American Express but given they already support it in the US, I doubt they had to do much here to support it.
 
The card issuers/apples UK Apple pay servers probably aren't online yet. US Apple employees will have to be on standby just incase of any hiccups, for that reason i can't see it being tomorrow. Tuesday (any weekday) allows a staggered sign up so less stress on this new services servers. All first day banks will probably have the highest traffic they've ever had.

Even Apple struggles when they release a new OS and they are built for this stuff. All these banks aren't.

But saying that, Banks/Apple could you please release tomorrow as my watch and phone and I are ready and waiting to spend less than £20 via NFC.

Wouldn't it just be the UK employees on call? Whenever I call Apple support I get a lovely Irish accent at the other end (support centre is in Ireland, probably next door to Dell's).
 
^Sainsburys too I guess, beat me to it.

why am I tempted to fill up a trolly of grocery shopping at sainsburys and attempt to pay with apple pay and then when they tell me it's not accepted leave all the food at the till or pay for it with 1p coins, or better yet write them a cheque. They might get the message then!

Well, I wouldn't really go to all that effort but it is irrelevant if the supermarket is anti-apple or not, contactless payments are the new standard and if they want to refuse payment then they should certainly feel the pressure.
 
why am I tempted to fill up a trolly of grocery shopping at sainsburys and attempt to pay with apple pay and then when they tell me it's not accepted leave all the food at the till or pay for it with 1p coins, or better yet write them a cheque. They might get the message then!

Well, I wouldn't really go to all that effort but it is irrelevant if the supermarket is anti-apple or not, contactless payments are the new standard and if they want to refuse payment then they should certainly feel the pressure.
It's a shame, especially as nearly all of their terminals are contactless enabled now. I can envisage myself only paying £20 / £30 per swipe at supermarkets that just enable normal contactless rather than full Apple Pay support, although that may just be because I've left my wallet at home!
 
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It's a shame, especially as nearly all of their terminals are contactless enabled now. I can envisage myself only paying £20 / £30 per swipe at supermarkets that just enable normal contactless rather than full Apple Pay support, although that may just be because I've left my wallet at home!

Surely the trick with the soon to be £30 limit on old terminals is to just ask them to split the bill into two and make two transactions? or does the second one get blocked in some way ?
 
Surely the trick with the soon to be £30 limit on old terminals is to just ask them to split the bill into two and make two transactions? or does the second one get blocked in some way ?
Yep, that's what I'm saying! Might encourage a slightly quicker roll-out of full Apple Pay support if people keep doing that (of course stores might ban it and only let you pay for the first £20/30...)!

Sainsburys never actually had them enabled (Their old POS software didn't support it), they are planning to have it enabled for contactless soon though according to their twitter.
Seems to go both ways. Maybe they mean they are introducing ZAPP... Who knows...
 

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Sorry to say it but sounds like fairly standard diversionary scripted customer service bulls**t - saw exactly the same thing in the megathread for the Fitbit/HealthKit debacle, they will already have made their mind up long ago about whether or not they'll be supporting it in the foreseeable future. I can't see someone like a supermarket being too badly affected by not supporting the latest payment tech, they'd only be losing the business of a minority-within-a-minority (reasonably tech savvy customers who care enough to go elsewhere). But of course I can't claim to know the margins they operate within, maybe the potential profit hit or customer satisfaction backlash would be sufficient to force them to go in for it, most of the others have I guess, for one reason or another.


[edit, hit post too early!]
 
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The Apple Pay card adding service now appears to be down even when the region is set to USA. Currently updating???
 

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Sorry to say it but sounds like fairly standard diversionary scripted customer service bulls**t - saw exactly the same thing in the megathread for the Fitbit/HealthKit debacle, they will already have made their mind up long ago about whether or not they'll be supporting it in the foreseeable future. I can't see someone like a supermarket being too badly affected by not supporting the latest payment tech, they'd only be losing the business of a minority-within-a-minority (reasonably tech savvy customers who care enough to go elsewhere). But of course I can't claim to know the margins they operate within, maybe the potential profit hit or customer satisfaction backlash would be sufficient to force them to go in for it, most of the others have I guess, for one reason or another.


[edit, hit post too early!]

UK supermarket margins are normally quite small, around 3-4% I think. I agree that only a small minority of people would take their business elsewhere if Apple Pay was blocked, but the grocery market in the UK is very competitive. Many surveys have also shown that the iPhone demographic is generally affluent, I'm not sure I believe this, but if it is true, these are exactly the sort of customers you don't want to alienate. Short term, any block would go completely unnoticed, but in the long term it would be a very unwise move.
 
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