Apple Pay launches in Switzerland with Visa and Mastercard support

AppleInsider

As promised in June, Apple on Thursday introduced its in-house payments solution Apple Pay to customers in Switzerland, offering initial support for both Visa and Mastercard credit cards.

Announced through Apple's regional website, iPhone users in Switzerland who are also customers of Bonus Card, Cornercard or Swiss Bankers can now provision their credit and prepaid cards for Apple Pay. Reports from users within the country note Apple's end of the service is live, allowing them to add cards to Wallet.

Owners might not be able to actually use the service anytime soon, however, as only eight major chains are listed as participating retailers, not including Apple's own Apple Store. Aldi, Avec, C&A, k kiosk, Mobile Zone, P&B, Spar, and TopCC are accepting Apple Pay transactions at launch, while Lidl plans to integrate the payments solution in the near future.

Apple confirmed Swiss availability at this year's Worldwide Developers Conference in June. At the time, the company said France and Hong Kong would also gain access to the service, though an exact launch window was not announced.

The service activation is the latest development in Apple Pay's measured international rollout. In June, Apple added backend integration with Canada's BMO, TD and Scotiabank, bringing the country's "big five" banking institutions into the fold. A week earlier, Apple Pay gained support from five major banks in Singapore.

Apple Pay was introduced to U.S. consumers in 2014 as part of iOS 8, later expanding to Australia, Canada, China and the UK.

As the service gains momentum in Apple's domestic market, the company is focusing future growth efforts in major markets in Asia and Europe. According to Apple Pay chief Jennifer Bailey, Apple plans to bring Apple Pay to every major market in which Apple products are sold.

applesauce007

Awesome news! 
France and Hong Kong are next as we await ApplePay on the web.

robogobo

It already worked at McDonalds in Switzerland – with a US based card – so I suspect there are other international retailers (such as H&M perhaps?) that already accept Apple Pay. Technically any terminal with contactless payment capability will work, so if you're in der Schweiz give it a try.

grimzahn

Hopefully we see it in Germany soon

frantisek

Contactless cards and terminal are domimant here in Europe. 9 of 10. So Apple has to convince banks and Visa/Mastercard to allow it get piece of pie.

edited July 2016

cropr

frantisek said:

Contactless cards and terminal are domimant here in Europe. 9 of 10. So Apple has to convince banks and Visa/Mastercard to allow it get piece of pie.

It depends country per country.  Countries like Belgium who moved massively to EMV terminals before the contactless payment method became available, have a big installed base of secure chipcard based terminals.  The incentive for a merchant to move from chipcard based terminals to contacless is not so big.  There is no real improvement in security, it just goes a bit faster

amckinlay21

cropr said:

frantisek said:

Contactless cards and terminal are domimant here in Europe. 9 of 10. So Apple has to convince banks and Visa/Mastercard to allow it get piece of pie.

It depends country per country.  Countries like Belgium who moved massively to EMV terminals before the contactless payment method became available, have a big installed base of secure chipcard based terminals.  The incentive for a merchant to move from chipcard based terminals to contacless is not so big.  There is no real improvement in security, it just goes a bit faster

Still, I think EMV terminals have only really appeared in Belgian stores and eateries in the last two years. Here the problem must be banks as we are still using the antiquated "Bancontact", the Visa and MasterCard networks are only present on credit cards and I don't think there are any contactless credit or debit cards at all yet - so a long way to go before Apple Pay becomes available here!

robertwalter

I've been using Apple Pay here in Switzerland with my USA based AMEX (and occasionally Visa) cards for the last 1.5 years at plenty of places (including Migros, Coop (since May Coop gas stations), Jumbo, Landi, restaurants and my little neighborhood barber); just cause they are not on Apple's list doesn't mean a merchant's POS devices don't support/block Apple Pay. 

The main debit cards (Maestro and Post Finance) and credit cards (Swiss, Lufthansa, Migros, Coop, Big bank) used by most people are not signing up for Apple Pay because the Swiss banking cartel has a stranglehold on its customers and is trying to promote its own homegrown national (non international) bPay or Walmart Pay like solution. 

edited July 2016

entropys

I am not sure what the deal is exactly here. Has Apple not negotiated with the banks, who usually issue the cards, and gone directly with visa and MasterCard? So in this country, it doesn't matter which bank has issued the card? Or is there something unique about Switzerland and the credit card companies issue the cards?
if it is direct deal with the credit card companies, this might mean an accelerating of the roll out around the world as the banks are left out altogether.

pagoumaz

Tried Apple Pay at COOP, one of the largest retailer in Switzerland, worked just fine, although they are not on the supported shops in the Apple list ! I Think that any NFC device (70 to 80 % of the devices in Switzerland) will work with Apple Pay.