RBC, CIBC & other Canadian banks launch support for Apple Pay

Posted:
in iPhone edited May 2016
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.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 33
    foggyhillfoggyhill Posts: 4,767member
    Yeah :-).
    lostkiwi
  • Reply 2 of 33
    jbishop1039jbishop1039 Posts: 258member
    Happy to see this news this morning! Already have all of my RBC cards added and ready to start finally using  Pay!
    edited May 2016 lostkiwi
  • Reply 3 of 33
    ericthehalfbeeericthehalfbee Posts: 4,489member
    TD better hurry their asses up. 
  • Reply 4 of 33
    brucemcbrucemc Posts: 1,541member
    Excellent!!  Will try to load up my cards this evening.  Been looking forward to using Apple Pay via Watch.
    lostkiwi
  • Reply 5 of 33
    Finally!!
    edited May 2016
  • Reply 6 of 33
    ericthehalfbeeericthehalfbee Posts: 4,489member
    Interesting that Interac spent so much time updating their back end system. Not sure if it's a good thing (updated security) or a bad thing (they had crappy systems in place all this time). Guess we can't blame the big banks for dragging their heels.

    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.
  • Reply 7 of 33
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member
    Super happy about this. That interac is included is a welcome surprise!
    lostkiwi
  • Reply 8 of 33
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,390member
    OMG, fucking FINALLY!  I thought I would NEVER see this headline. So ecstatic this has finally happened!
    magman1979
  • Reply 9 of 33
    misamisa Posts: 827member
    Interesting that Interac spent so much time updating their back end system. Not sure if it's a good thing (updated security) or a bad thing (they had crappy systems in place all this time). Guess we can't blame the big banks for dragging their heels.

    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.
    Interac is "proprietary" is probably the better reason. It often costs the customer (a fee charged by the bank) AND the merchant. So most places that take debit cards will balk at trying to buy anything under $5.00 using debit. It's often easier to use a credit card in 99% of the cases, but usually if someone has a signpost about accepting debit cards, they don't accept credit cards, or apply the same condition to the credit card.

    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.
  • Reply 10 of 33
    uk ninouk nino Posts: 1member
    I have an iphone 6 I bought in Switzerland, with the latest version of iOS. Currently I live in the UK and I have an account with the bank Lloyds and Visa from this bank. But I can not use Apple Pay. I went into an Apple Center, and I was told I had to buy an iPhone in UK for it to work !! Why ??
  • Reply 11 of 33
    magman1979magman1979 Posts: 1,301member
    While I'm thrilled about this, I've been reading that RBC requires you to download their crappy Wallet app in order to authenticate a card with Pay, WTF???

    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...
    isteelerslostkiwi
  • Reply 12 of 33
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,940member
    Good...now people can stop whining about the lack of Canadian ApplePay support! 
    nolamacguylostkiwichia
  • Reply 13 of 33
    chasmchasm Posts: 3,610member
    uk nino said:
    I have an iphone 6 I bought in Switzerland, with the latest version of iOS. Currently I live in the UK and I have an account with the bank Lloyds and Visa from this bank. But I can not use Apple Pay. I went into an Apple Center, and I was told I had to buy an iPhone in UK for it to work !! Why ??
    Because whoever told you that is an idiot. Apple Pay couldn't care less where you bought your iPhone. You need an iPhone 6 or later (you have that), cards that are supported by Apple Pay (double-check that), and you need to add your supported cards to Wallet. And of course be using Touch ID, but of course you've done that. The hangup is with adding the cards to Wallet, so you'll have to deal with the bank to do that.
    lostkiwichia
  • Reply 14 of 33
    mknelsonmknelson Posts: 1,147member
    While I'm thrilled about this, I've been reading that RBC requires you to download their crappy Wallet app in order to authenticate a card with Pay, WTF???

    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???
    It's likely just a one-time thing to set up the card.

    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!
    lostkiwi
  • Reply 15 of 33
    foggyhillfoggyhill Posts: 4,767member
    uk nino said:
    I have an iphone 6 I bought in Switzerland, with the latest version of iOS. Currently I live in the UK and I have an account with the bank Lloyds and Visa from this bank. But I can not use Apple Pay. I went into an Apple Center, and I was told I had to buy an iPhone in UK for it to work !! Why ??
    That makes no sense at all, and it's not true.
    lostkiwichia
  • Reply 16 of 33
    foggyhillfoggyhill Posts: 4,767member
    While I'm thrilled about this, I've been reading that RBC requires you to download their crappy Wallet app in order to authenticate a card with Pay, WTF???

    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...
    Authentificating the card is very important for security, there was fraud in the US because some Banks didn't verify that the cards were stolen initially.
    jbishop1039chia
  • Reply 17 of 33
    magman1979magman1979 Posts: 1,301member
    mknelson said:

    It's likely just a one-time thing to set up the card.

    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!

    foggyhill said:

    Authentificating the card is very important for security, there was fraud in the US because some Banks didn't verify that the cards were stolen initially.

    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!
  • Reply 18 of 33
    mike1mike1 Posts: 3,442member
    foggyhill said:
    uk nino said:
    I have an iphone 6 I bought in Switzerland, with the latest version of iOS. Currently I live in the UK and I have an account with the bank Lloyds and Visa from this bank. But I can not use Apple Pay. I went into an Apple Center, and I was told I had to buy an iPhone in UK for it to work !! Why ??
    That makes no sense at all, and it's not true.
    Is it possible that NFC has to be disabled in some countries in order to be sold legally? Not saying that is the case, especially in Switzerland, but I have heard of some features not being available in some countries before.
  • Reply 19 of 33
    I am a bit surprised by that, I have an unlocked Canadian iPhone 6, and it worked perfectly when I went to the UK and registered my UK HSBC / Barclaycard credit cards.
    chia
  • Reply 20 of 33
    originalgoriginalg Posts: 383member
    TD where are you?! At least I can add my backup card and leave the physical one at home
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