RBC, CIBC & other Canadian banks launch support for Apple Pay
Several Canadian banks launched support for Apple Pay on Tuesday, finally opening up the payment platform in the country beyond the limited number of American Express card holders.
Two major banks -- the Royal Bank of Canada and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, better known as RBC and CIBC -- are among the initial participants, along with ATB Financial and Canadian Tire Financial Services, the Financial Post said. The country's three other majors -- TD, Bank of Montreal, and Scotiabank -- are expected to sign on in the next few months.
RBC and CIBC are supporting debit cards plus credit cards from Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. Canadian Tire is only supporting credit cards however, while ATB's debit support is due later on.
The Post indicated that Canadian banks have been in talks with Apple for months, and were concerned about preserving both client security and relationships in any deal, along with setting how interchange fees for each transaction would be shared.
Another issue was Interac, a Canadian transactions firm that had to be supported in order for debit cards to work. ATMs in the country, for instance, will typically display the Interac logo prominently and may even be casually referred to as Interac machines. The platform was reportedly one of the big reasons for the delay in expanding Apple Pay in Canada -- Interac spent a year and a half developing a new token service provider.
Some people were upset at how long it took for Apple Pay to reach Canada despite the country being closely linked to the U.S. While Apple Pay launched in the U.S. in October 2014, there was no Canadian support until November the next year, and then through American Express -- a credit card most Canadians are unlikely to have.
Two major banks -- the Royal Bank of Canada and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, better known as RBC and CIBC -- are among the initial participants, along with ATB Financial and Canadian Tire Financial Services, the Financial Post said. The country's three other majors -- TD, Bank of Montreal, and Scotiabank -- are expected to sign on in the next few months.
RBC and CIBC are supporting debit cards plus credit cards from Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. Canadian Tire is only supporting credit cards however, while ATB's debit support is due later on.
The Post indicated that Canadian banks have been in talks with Apple for months, and were concerned about preserving both client security and relationships in any deal, along with setting how interchange fees for each transaction would be shared.
Another issue was Interac, a Canadian transactions firm that had to be supported in order for debit cards to work. ATMs in the country, for instance, will typically display the Interac logo prominently and may even be casually referred to as Interac machines. The platform was reportedly one of the big reasons for the delay in expanding Apple Pay in Canada -- Interac spent a year and a half developing a new token service provider.
Some people were upset at how long it took for Apple Pay to reach Canada despite the country being closely linked to the U.S. While Apple Pay launched in the U.S. in October 2014, there was no Canadian support until November the next year, and then through American Express -- a credit card most Canadians are unlikely to have.
Comments
On a side note, my TD cards only seem to last about a year or so before the tap feature quits. My wife also has her cards fail as well. Not sure if we're doing something wrong (abusing our cards) or if they just aren't that reliable, but it will be nice not having to use them anymore for the majority of purchases.
Apple Pay should be interesting now since that the vast majority of places do have NFC unlike the US. Unfortunately the bank I deal with isn't in the launch party.
As for how long to NFC cards last? Quite a long time, but you'll have to replace the card at least twice during it's lifetime. This is mostly because the antenna wires eventually break from the chip which is caused by bending the card in wallets. You can see how this is attached on the AMEX Canada card which is completely transparent.
None of the other banks I've read about, not even AMEX in Canada, has this ridiculous requirement... Is this for tracking purposes or some form of device advertising monetization??? I was momentarily considering getting RBC accounts and CC's in order to get Pay, but that just killed RBC for me for good! They haven't changed one bit, still a bunch of a sleeze bags they've always been!
I guess I might wait for the other banks, or perhaps even the credit unions, to come online with this...
For CIBC I had to either call CIBC or get enter a one-time code that was emailed to my confirmed email account.
Download Wallet, authenticate, delete wallet. done!
But this type of verification is not necessary... With AMEX, we are sent a one-time verification code to our SMS, copy and paste it, done! RBC is making us jump thru unnecessary hoops going to the App Store, download THEIR wallet app, just to authenticate something can be done within Pay itself? This is the anti-thesis of what Pay was meant to be!
Not saying authentication isn't needed, in fact I'm all for it, but do it within the iOS Wallet app, where verification methods are natively supported, and don't make the customer jump thru hoops just to add a card! It goes against what Pay was meant to be!