Apple has announced that customers will be able to make payments with their new iPhones from 20 October, when Apple Pay becomes available in the United States.
Apple Pay is described as an easy, secure and private way to pay using Touch ID on iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in stores and within apps. Users of the just-announced iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 will also be able to use Touch ID on their devices for Apple Pay within apps. The new service will be enabled by a free software update to iOS 8.
Apple Pay supports credit and debit cards from the three major payment networks, American Express, MasterCard and Visa. Apple said that in addition to American Express, Bank of America, Capital One Bank, Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo and other financial giants, who announced support in September, more than 500 new banks from across the country have signed on to Apple Pay. Users can make purchases in stores and within apps, with credit cards issued by many of the leading banks nationwide, which make up 83% of the credit card purchase volume in the US.
They’ll also be able to use Apple Pay at vending machines. Leading vending technology companies have already announced support for Apple Pay. Crane Co, Cantaloupe Systems and Byndl are among the high-tech firms whose cashless payment systems work with NFC devices.
Apple is among many several competing entities in the mobile payments space. Softcard (formerly Isis) has been working with USA Technologies in the vending sector. Others include Google Wallet and PayPal. The biggest mobile payments player could be MCX, which stands for Merchant Customer Exchange. It’s a partnership between multiple large US retail companies, including Walmart, Target, Kmart and Shell, among others. Its brand is called CurrentC and is scheduled to launch next year.
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