A new mobile payment system from Apple called "Apple Pay" was rolled out last Monday October 20, 2014 and it was a successful launched overall despite a few hiccups.
Apple Pay let's you pay participating retailers and merchants with your iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus, you can also pay using iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 through in-app purchases.
Any participating stores that has a contactless terminal installed will be able to process Apple Pay. The company said more than 200,000 merchants now support contactless payments, which includes Whole Foods, Macy’s, McDonald's, Subway, Chevron and Texaco gas stations, Radio Shack, and Panera Bread.
This new payment system from Apple is very convenient, all you need to do to pay for your purchases at a merchant's contactless terminal is hold your iPhone close to the device. The Apple Pay interface will open and shows the credit card that you have set for payment. You can also change credit cards, if you are ready to pay just put your finger on the fingerprint reader to complete the purchase. I tried it on Whole Foods, and it worked fast and easy. I just placed my phone near the terminal place my thumb on the fingerprint reader to authorize the transaction. Just like using an Octopus card in Hong Kong.
It is also easy to set up on your phone, just go to Settings>Passbook>Apple Pay. You can also go to the Passbook app. For it to be able to work you will need a credit card stored in your iTunes account you cannot use PayPal. You can also store multiple cards in the Passbook app. Most major credit cards will work.
In my opinion, using Apple Pay is much secure than credit card since the fingerprint sensor (Touch ID) on your smartphone will be use as your password to be able to connect with your account and approve the transactions you made.
People today are fearful of using credit cards due to the fact that there are a lot of news coming out about security breaches from credit cards, the latest is the Staples possible credit card data breach. With the Apple Pay extra security feature, the TouchID fingerprint sensor people won't feel vulnerable to data breaches.
A report from USA today mentioned that Whole Foods Market have signage that they accept Apple Pay, and a Staple store in New York said the system failed and it didn't work. If you used it last Monday to purchase through apps on a tablet or phone you will notice that there are still bugs and can result to double charges.
If you have not set up your iPhone for Apple Pay you can follow these steps:
- Update your Software first to iOS 8.1 in Settings on your iPhone.
- Go to Settings, open "Passbook & Apple Pay," and input your credit or debit cards.
- If you are too lazy to do it manually you can use the iPhone camera to take a photo of your credit card information, and keyboard to enter the security code.
- Apple recommends having a "Credit card" instead of a "Debit card" to get the most consistent Apple Pay experience. Since using "Debit Card" may not always work successfully with some older merchant payment terminals and back-end systems according to Apple.
