Apple Pay Review

July 17, 2015

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The week started off well and created a buzz amongst the digital world after Apple released Apply Pay to the UK Market

As a digital agency of course we had a few people in the office who couldn’t wait to get stuck in and experience this new service from Apple.

Since the launch, our Creative Director Darren Walters and Account Director Patrick Minard have been reviewing Apple Pay. Here’s how they got on

Darren WaltersCreative Director – Darren Walters

My initial thoughts on Apple Pay are positive and I think it will be a popular choice for owners of the Apple Watch and latest iPhone hardware. I’m a big fan of the added layer of security from Touch ID, meaning only I alone can pay with my device. I’m hoping this point of difference from contactless cards will mean that the £20 maximum spend threshold can be raised.

So far I have used the service twice. Buying dinner in M&S after a run provided a great opportunity to try it out. With my wallet and phone packed away in my bag, I was able to quickly wave my Apple Watch in front of the card reader and pay without having to fumble through my backpack

 

Patrick MinardAccount Director – Patrick Minard

On July 14th the eagerly awaiting UK market were finally able to access and use Apple Pay, well for those who had bank cards that were activated to work with Apple Pay.

Being a HSBC customer and knowing that they were one of the “launch” partners and seeing tweets from their official twitter account on how excited they were I couldn’t wait to be one of the first to use it.

HSBC screenshotI awoke on the morning of the 14th excited to link my HSBC card up to Apple Pay and was frustratingly told to contact the card issuer as there was an error. Long story short, HSBC were actually not going to be activating Apple Pay for their customers until towards the end of July. It wasn’t just me that was annoyed.

Luckily I am also a NatWest customer and although they weren’t a launch partner, it worked and connected perfectly. So before work I headed to Waitrose to make my first purchase using Apple Pay. After choosing the usual “contactless” route on the till I then simply held my phone up to the reader with my thumb on the fingerprint reader and the transaction was complete.

Natwest screenshotAs you can see you also get a certain level of transaction history which is good to see (Maybe not when on a night out). It was a good experience and definitely one I will be using again.

There are some initial downsides. For example they are accepted on the London Underground. But for those who have a monthly or yearly season pass to save money, they cannot (At this moment) transfer this same scheme over to Apple Pay. Although this is the same downside that contactless bank cards suffer from too.

Additionally I am sure there will be a rise of cracked screens from those that are a little clumsy, which when using a bank card isn’t that much of an issue, but with a £500+ device it becomes a little more important.

Overall I think it will take off and is definitely the future but it may remain a relatively slow uptake whilst more retailers adopt it and people feel more comfortable with this method of payment.

If you have been using Apple Pay this week please leave a comment below with your experience.

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