Apple Pay goes limitless in the UK
(22 May 2017 – United Kingdom) According to technology giant, Apple, most of its mobile payment point of service (POS) platform, Apple Pay in the UK can now accept payments above £30.
The head of the firm’s payment business, Jennifer Bailey, said more than half of contactless payment terminals in the UK are now able to take Apple Pay transactions of any value. Most card readers had previously been restricted to £30, the default upper limit for contactless card transactions.
Bailey said the upgrade applied to “hundreds of thousands of terminals”, and means customers can make payments without carrying their wallet.
Higher-value payments are seen as a key advantage for Apple over contactless cards as it seeks to grow its payments business. Some reports have suggested mobile payments getting off to a slow start, with consumers sometimes unaware of the technology or struggling to see the benefits over card payments.
“We think the majority of the contactless terminals [in the UK] are now limitless,” Bailey said.
Retailers now accepting the higher-value payments include supermarkets such as Waitrose and Sainsbury's and restaurants including Pizza Express and Nando's.
The company says Apple Pay transactions in the UK have grown by 300 percent in the last year, with 23 banks now supporting the service. “Our momentum has been fantastic. We’re really excited about the progress,” she added.
Bailey indicated that the tech giant was also working on a range of other product and services to replace consumers’ wallets outside of credit cards.
“If you think about all the things in your wallet, we're thinking about all those things, we're probably actively working on most of them,” she said.
“We’re starting with payments. Some are longer term, we see this as a long term journey rather than something we can solve in the next 12 months.”
East & Partners UK Merchant Payments Program has found that while debit cards represent a clear majority (nearly two thirds) of UK merchants’ annual receivables with around 55 percent of that terminal based, just under 23 percent of receivabl1es are credit cards with contactless payments accounting for seven percent of that figure.
giant, Apple, most of its mobile payment point of service (POS) platform, Apple Pay in the UK can now accept payments above £30.
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