Some expectant Apple Pay users are falling at the first hurdle

4 months ago

iPhone users in the UK are waking up this morning to find Apple Pay now live on their devices.

It’s a big moment for the mobile payment industry as thousands of new users of contactless are likely to spark into life thanks to the service coming to their iPhone 6 or Apple Watch.

However, there’s been a problem this morning as some are disappointed to find that their bank does not support the service yet.

HSBC users in particular are surprised, considering the bank features prominently in Apple Pay media materials on the Apple website. Quickly, the conspiracy theories appeared.

Apple themselves confirmed that while the likes of NatWest, Nationwide, RBS and Santander should be working straight away, HSBC and first direct would be coming “later in July”.

Then Bank of Scotland, Halifax, Lloyds, M&S Bank and TSB will follow “by this fall”, or as we like to say, autumn. Barclays too is not yet a partner with Apple, with no arrival date set for customers yet.

Though there were also reports of Ulster Bank not working for some users.

But for the most part, the early risers and users this morning are quite happy with the results.