Dallas, Texas 07/14/2015 (Financialstrend) – IPhone and Apple Watch users can now access Apple Pay in some locations across the UK after Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) unveiled the new service. Apple faithful’s can now pay for goods and services and travel around London with their iPhones as their mode of payment.
More Shops on Board
The service currently sports more than 250,000 shops across the UK as well as bus and rail networks. All one needs to access the service is iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 plus that comes with an inbuilt scanner and a Near Field Communication chip to enable transactions. The UK is the first marketplace that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has tapped into with Apple Pay having already gained traction in the US.
Apple Pay market share in the fast-growing marketplace has been growing steadily Apple having registered more than one million credit cards upon unveiling last October. Some of the banks in the UK that support Apple Pay include Santander, NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland with Halifax and Bank of Scotland set to join the bandwagon this Autumn.
Barclay’s customers will have to wait a little bit longer to see if the bank will support the new payment system. The bank on its part maintains that Apple Pay support is coming ‘imminently.’ However there are concerns that the bank is considering unveiling a similar service that would rival Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s system.
Apple to Eliminate Traditional Wallets
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) plans to use Apple Pay to replace the traditional wallet as it continues to market it as an easy to use platform with the highest level of security and customer privacy. Unlike the US, the UK is well advanced on contactless payment system having transitioned into the chip technology from the pin-technology way earlier.
Apple Pay should grow in popularity as it is expected to reduce the number of items that people carry by positioning itself as a system that provides an extra layer of security by the use of the fingerprint recognition system.
