Today we are going to talk again about the contactless payment system that Apple made available to its users in 2017 and which is still quite stagnant in the national territory (Spain) due to little interest from banks. Certainly Apple Pay arrived in Spain thanks to Banco Santander and Carrefour Pass but, Why months later are new banks still not joining the initiative? Spain is not the only country where Apple Pay is having many deployment problems, the restriction of the NFC chip and its intention to take a piece of the cake from the banks is weighing on the development and integration of this type of technology.
And is that despite the fact that Banco Santander is a fairly popular financial institution, it is not the majority in the country. We find large banks such as Caixa Bank or BBVA that continue to turn their backs on the Cupertino mobile payment platform. If we look at the matter a bit in depth, we realize that these banks mentioned have their own contactless cards and payment platforms, yes, with the same or less deployment as Apple Pay, but at least compatible with Android devices and your NFC chip.
However, Apple Pay is still a closed payment system, which makes banks doubt, which is why in Australia they are refusing to offer this service to their customers in a massive way.
As you can imagine, Apple also takes a pinch of each transaction in the form of commissions, and although whoever robs a thief has a hundred years of forgiveness, banks do not like the idea of losing commissions under other platforms. pay when they have invested enough millions in theirs. In case someone had not noticed, the deployment of Apple Pay in Spain is still completely blocked, despite taking a reasonable time in the country, in which the catalog should have already expanded. It seems that Between the greed of the banks and the agony of Tim Cook, iOS users in Spain will still not have access to Apple Pay in full circumstances.
And it is that we not only stay there, we must bear in mind that the NFC has more functionalities apart from paying, Apple knows this well with its AirPods. However, nothing portends that public transport cards like EMT Madrid.
It is precisely in Spain that we are fortunate that one of the entities is Carrefour. With your PASS card, anyone can associate any bank account of any entity so that the charges made with that card are passed on our account. The problems are over. And it can be used as a credit card so that charges are passed to our account when they occur. That being the case, what difference does it make that other banks do not want to enter?
Also, if someone is really interested in the subject, make a Santander account. In the end, it is a way to attract customers and Carrefour has seen it clearly.
I wanted to say that it can be configured as a debit card, or a credit card if you want.
If you don't want to end up paying commissions, I recommend getting the Carrefour card. That those of Santander change their criteria every two newscasts, and will end up charging commissions on all types of account.
And it is more comfortable to continue using the current bank that you already know than to change. Especially having an easy and free way to get the Apple Pay service.
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that for Santander or Carrefour to sign with Apple Pay they had to be guaranteed exclusivity for at least 3 months. Perhaps before saying that Apple Pay is stagnant in Spain, it would be convenient to wait those 3 months to see what happens.
If in June (to give a little more margin) we continue the same in this aspect then it will be a reason to say that Apple Pay is stagnant, but until then I think it is a bit hasty since like banks like BBVA or Bankia they have closed totally, others like EVO Banco or OpenBank have already said that they are in it.
regards
If in June we continue with Apple Pay at the levels of now, it would be embarrassing, without more.
Shameful on whose part? Because those who do not want to bend their arm are some banks that want to impose their system on users, instead of offering different options and choosing the best one for them.
Let's say I know ING will release it. In less than 6 months but more than 3. Negotiating with Apple is terribly screwed.
If this I know, I "know" that they will not be the only ones.
You have more information. Almost six months since Apple Pay started in Spain.
I come from android and these things seem incredible to me. There with all the banks I used you could pay for nfc. Really, this seems to me "third world" because of Apple's greed and stubbornness, which apart from not being able to pay with the terminal sells it "without" nfc. I seem to have a terminal with technology 3 years older than my old android, at the moment the only one that I can find and it made me return to iOS is AirPlay that works perfectly