I told you the other day that Apple Pay will be launched in Europe during this day and the inevitable happened, the new mobile payment system of the American company being available in Great Britain from this morning.
Great Britain is the first and only country in Europe in which Apple Pay is officially available, local banks allowing customers to register their cards for payments through Apple Pay, a multitude of local partners supporting payments through this type of system.
250.000 stores in Great Britain and 8 major banks are currently compatible with the system Apple Pay, so we are talking about a very large support for a service that has proven to be extremely sought after in the US by owners of iPhone terminals.
Although the idea of making mobile payments using an iPhone is extremely interesting, the main problem is that in the UK Apple Pay is limited to making payments of a maximum of 20 pounds without entering a PIN, the limit will be increased to 30 pounds in the following weeks.
The key point promoted by Apple for the Apple Pay system was the option to use the system without limitations regarding payments and entering PINs, so the difference between Apple Pay and a contactless card is currently small.
Unfortunately, expanding the availability of Apple Pay in other European countries will come with similar limitations, this is because European and Romanian banks do not allow making large payments without entering your card's PIN, so the system itself is useless .
We told you last year that ING Pay allows the use of a contactless card to make mobile payments at some retailers in our country, but with a transaction limit of 100 lei, after which it is necessary to enter a PIN, and Apple Pay works similarly in Great Britain.
Considering that in the case of contactless cards we are talking about the lack of a security system, simply approaching a POS to withdraw the money, the restriction is normal, but in the case of Apple Pay the user must activate Passbook, Wallet in iOS 9, to make the payment , so practically no one can steal money from him by simply approaching.
Despite this difference, Apple Pay will be limited in Europe, but maybe things will change in the future.
