Brits get Apple Pay support for TSB, Tesco Bank cards
It’s a great day for Apple Pay. Because all around the world, Cupertino’s contactless, NFC-powered mobile payments service is expanding, and this even includes in the United Kingdom, too.
Here in Britain, Apple Pay has been available for a good few months, offering card owners like myself the option of scanning an iPhone or, if we dare to be so bold, an Apple Watch in order to make payments at NFC "contactless" terminals. I’ve been using Apple Pay alongside my NatWest debit card, though a number of big players in Britain’s banking space have yet to offer support for the service. Today, however, two new banks — Tesco Bank and TSB — have announced that they’re jumping on board with Apple Pay.
This is grand news indeed. I happen to be a Tesco Bank customer, too, and it’s great to have the option of adding this card into Wallet for iOS. In fact, since signing my NatWest card up for Apple Pay, I’ve missed not being able to house my entire wallet in, well, Wallet.
Surprisingly, heavyweight bank Barclays is still not offering support for Apple Pay in the United Kingdom, to the dismay of its huge customer base. Though the bank has confirmed that a 2016 launch for Apple Pay is in the cards, Barclays customers are nevertheless beginning to tire of waiting for the service to reach them.
Apple Pay launched in Canada today, also, but the availability of Cupertino’s service north of the border is limited to American Express customers only. As our original report explained, other providers in Canada have reportedly been "dragging," leading Apple to go ahead with a smaller-than-anticipated launch for its Apple Pay service in Canada. Mind you, it’s not all bad: American Express considers Apple Pay to be so secure, that it’s waiving its usual limit on contactless payments. Here’s hoping providers the world over follow this fine example sooner rather than later.
So, have you tried Apple Pay yet? It’s a service that’s impossible not to love.
