If you’re an owner of a recent Apple iPhone and you regularly rely on American Express, you’ll find the future of mobile payments is now in the palm of your hand.
From this week on, anyone in Australia with both an Amex card and an iPhone, iPad, or an Apple Watch can pay with their mobile gadget, as ApplePay now works in Australia with cards issued by American Express.
“With Australians leading the world in the adoption of contactless payments, we are proud to now offer the convenience and security of Apple Pay to our customers,” said Dean Chadwick, Vice President of Consumer Marketing at American Express in Australia and New Zealand.
The addition of this service comes off the back of an announcement by American Express that Australians would see the technology before the end of the year, alongside Canada as the first locations outside the USA to get ApplePay.
Getting it to work is pretty simple, and if you have an Amex card at the ready, you’ll find the Wallet app on iOS 9 will let you get started, while American Express cards already set up to use the iTunes account should only need to enter the verification code to get started, with the phone or tablet taking care of the rest.
From there, it’s just a matter of finding something to buy, with ApplePay accepted at the cashier, waiting for the secure element in a supported device. These include the iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s Plus, iPad Air 2, and Apple Watch, so there’s no shortage of devices from Apple that support the technology.
But what about if you want to try ApplePay and you’re not an American Express customer?
We’ve put in requests for comment to both of Amex’s biggest competitors, Visa and MasterCard, with the former saying “no comment” and the latter responding with “we are working with our Issuers to expand mobile payments in Australia.”
“Our focus is on having your MasterCard cards on all devices, working in partnership with all platform providers,” added the spokesperson from MasterCard, which suggests that it won’t just roll out for ApplePay, but also Android devices, too.
For now, if you want to try ApplePay, you’ll need American Express, but at least you don’t have to worry about leaving home without it (the card), just don’t go without your phone, though you’re already probably trying to do that.
UPDATE (5.05 pm): And there we go, we have comments from MasterCard and a sort-of response from Visa, so we’ve amended the story.
